by Aryeh Cohen · Tuesday, June 24th, 2008
So, for some unknown reason, I am on the email list of the “Jewish community of Hebron”. As a result of this good fortune I receive an email two or three times a week from David Wilder, the spokesperson of the community. This morning my inbox brought me Mr. Wilder’s response to Nicholas Kristof’s column in today’s New York Times (mentioned here). I won’t rehearse Wilder’s “arguments” (which seem to consist of repeating a version of “x is exaggerated” or “y is a fairy tale”) which are available here.
The telling thing about his response is his opening paragraph:
Nicholas D. Kristof called me a few days ago and we spoke for a while on the phone. Obviously he visited Hebron, but did not see fit to interview me at the time, preferring a phone conversation. That fact, in and of itself, is unfortunate, for had he spent some time with me on site, seeing Hebron through Jewish-Israeli eyes also, perhaps his column would have been written differently.
“Seeing Hebron through Jewish-Israeli eyes.” Since Kristof seems to have spent time with many apparently Jewish Israelis, it seems that Wilder does not consider people who care about Palestinian human rights, or who work for or with B’Tzelem, or who volunteer at checkpoints to help Palestinians to be Jewish-Israelis.
This brings to mind a Shabbat I spent in Hebron in the mid-80s. It was pre-first Intifada Hebron and therefore Jewish settlers could swagger through the Arab markets brandishing AK-47s with impunity. I spent Friday night with the Levingers. Over Shabbat dinner, Moshe Levinger told us that Israel should, in fact, invade Jordan since it was Eretz Yisrael but that the time was not right. This was just a few years before he was arrested and convicted of shooting towards shops in the Arab market at random, killing Khayed Salah, a 42 year old Hebron shopkeeper, after Palestinians threw stones at his car.
The Jewish settlers in Hebron have created a religion which is foreign to the traditions of our ancestors. The open question is, as Jeffrey Goldberg asked in an important 2004 New Yorker piece, will they destroy Israel?
by Josh Frankel · Wednesday, March 14th, 2007
I was struck by the story Mobius posted yesterday regarding a well known Rabbi resorting to violence in order to make a point about how he felt Jews should act. It made me think about the relationship between our current political situation and our everyday behavior. In that light, this strange chat transcript seemed particularly eerie.
Let me give you some background. Many years ago, when I was a teenager living in Calgary, I was very involved in NCSY, and I used to participate in these weekly chats moderated by NCSY staff. Through the magic of the Wayback Machine I came across a chat transcript that NCSY had proudly displayed on their site in December of 1998. The topic of the week was, “The Connection Between the Jewish People and Israel,†and mixed in with advisers giving Kahanist rants is a surreal account of high school rebbe pushing a student through a glass window. Yes, according to how it is presented here, the kid probably deserved a little punishment, and maybe even a nice kick in the tush, but what is frightening is how almost everyone in this chat is nonplussed by a high school teacher physically assaulting a student.
Cast of characters:
- Nachum1 – A Kahanist NCSY adviser
- Alw – a NCSYer from Texas. I made her acquaintance through this chat, and today she is a good friend of mine
- Roger – A national NCSY administrator, and the coordinator of the chat room
- Advisor_aaron – Another NCSY adviser
- Erwos - A slightly younger NCSYer from Silver Spring
- Valerie - A National NCSY officer from LA
Everyone else, I either don’t know or don’t remember. And me, where am I? Well, I had to miss the weekly chat. I was taking my Spring Break in Vancouver and Seattle, and that night in particular, April 1, 1997, I was sitting in a café in Vancouver getting ready for an Allen Ginsberg poetry reading. After a half hour of sitting around, we got the word that the master had canceled. It turns out Mr. Ginsberg, zâ€l, was sick - he passed away a few days later.
Here’s the text
by Mobius · Wednesday, May 17th, 2006
ynet reports,
“It is absurd that the American taxpayers should fund a plan that will ethnically cleanse an area of Jews by expelling tens of thousands of Jews from their homes,” stated Assemblyman Dov Hikind, D-Brooklyn.
“And why should US citizens whose government is in the midst of fighting a war on terror pay to help establish what will clearly become a center for global jihad after Israel evacuates?” Hikind said.
The lawmaker arrived in Israel yesterday for a whirlwind tour of many of the West Bank Jewish communities slated for evacuation under Olmert’s convergence plan, which seeks to change Israel’s borders by withdrawing from most of the territory.
Yeah, goddamnit! Why should the US in any way have to pay for the road map it’s imposed on Israel? Better they should pay for Hikind’s staff to fly to Israel to obstruct the IDF from carrying out its evacuation orders. Because, if anyone should be getting ethnically cleansed, it should be those damned Palestinians, right Mr. former-JDL-lieutant Hikind? You sure do speak for New York City’s Jewish community, particularly your large hareidi anti-Zionist constituency, and I’m sure, all the people of color in your district, plus those damned liberal Jewish reshayim who want to make peace in the Middle East and think your esteemed Rebbe Kahane was a prick.
Which, I guess, is at least one quality you share with your deceased hero. Ya prick!
by Mobius · Thursday, April 13th, 2006
JTA reports,
Israeli police prevented the attempted sacrifice of a Passover lamb at the Western Wall.
A group of religious Jews led by far-right activist Itamar Ben-Gvir, lamb in hand, was blocked from reaching Judaism’s holiest site Wednesday.
They said they wanted to slaughter the lamb as part of pre-Passover rituals, but authorities said Ben-Gvir, who is identified with Jews campaigning to establish a Third Temple in place of Al-Aksa Mosque, aimed to provoke Palestinians.
Source.
by John Brown · Sunday, March 19th, 2006
ynet reports,
The bird flu outbreak in southern Israel is God’s punishment for the Gaza Strip and northern West Bank disengagement, National Jewish Front Chairman Baruch Marzel says.
“You were punished by God and now you’ll have to ask for the forgiveness of Gush Katif residents,” Marzel wrote in a letter to southern residents whose communities were affected by bird flu.
[...]
“The kibbutz was used to house the expulsion headquarters because of greed, and therefore the bird flu outbreak happened there of all places,” the far right leader wrote in his letter to Ein HaShlosha kibbutz.
Full story.
by Mobius · Monday, February 27th, 2006
Tens of thousands of French Jews responding to the murder of Ilan Halimi, took to the streets of Marsailles, Paris and Jerusalem in protest Sunday, many brandishing the flag of the Jewish Defense League, the right-wing extremist faction founded by R’ Meir Kahane. For video click here.
A memorial service was held at La Victoire synagogue Thursday night, in Paris, and was attended by President Jacques Chirac and Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin, as well as several local Christian and Muslim leaders.
Halimi’s distant cousin, Shmouel Halimi, a French ex-pat living in Jerusalem and an avid reader of Jewschool responds: “Generally, French Jews are right-wing. Sometimes very right-wing. We do not like Arabs. You need to live in France to understand this. Arabs in France are very violent and hateful. They attack Jews all the time, for years on-end. You can’t imagine the situation.”
When asked if he felt that “responding to hate with hate” is the right thing to do, he replied, “No, I prefer to focus on the light. The Torah is our force. But I dont like the Arabs in France. There is nothing controlling them. They are extremely racist. So, then, what? Should we love them?”
by Mobius · Monday, January 16th, 2006
They have
donned yellow stars and given soldiers
the Nazi salute. They have declared the State of Israel
an illegal entity in the back pocket of the U.S. government. They have
assaulted soldiers and
attacked neighboring ethnic groups. They have most recently been
placed under military curfew. Their gripe is
their entitlement to the complete and total land of Palestine, from the river to the sea, as they have determined it in their fundamentalist interpretations of religious scripture.
These are not Palestinians, no. These are Jews. Jews resisting their eviction from Palestinian shops on formerly Jewish land which they have been occupying illegally.
Can you smell the Kumah rising?
In related news, “Hundreds of ultra-Orthodox block road in town of Beit Shemesh, hurl stones at police officers in protest of new residents who are ‘not religious enough’; five protestors arrested.”
by Mobius · Tuesday, January 10th, 2006
The Jerusalem Post reports,
Jerusalem police on Sunday shut down a city internet cafe where the illicit far-right Jewish Legion group allegedly carried out some of its activity, police said.
The cafe, located near the city’s central bus station, was raided and subsequently closed for 15 days by order of the chief of police.
Four people operating the shop were detained for questioning.
The police also carried out a search of a city apartment where the far-right activists allegedly live.
Police confiscated four computers and various documents during the late morning raids.
A similar raid was held on the group’s headquarters in Kfar Tapuach. More »
by John Brown · Friday, November 4th, 2005
Exactly 10 years ago today - November 4, 1995 - Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin was murdered by Yigal Amir, after attending a rally promoting the Oslo process at Tel Aviv’s Kings of Israel Square (which is now the Yitzhak Rabin Square). Fatally wounded by three gun shots, he died of massive blood loss and a punctured lung on the operating table at the nearby Ichilov Hospital in Tel Aviv.
Yigal Amir was born to a national-religious (Religious Zionist) Orthodox Jewish family in the Israeli town of Herzliya; his parents emigrated to Israel from Yemen. He attended Haredi elementary school and yeshiva for his formal education. He served in the Golani Brigade during service in the Israel Defense Force as part of a combined yeshiva-study and army-training program known as hesder. A law student at Bar-Ilan University, he was involved in organizing demonstrations against the Oslo Accords. Amir perceived the Oslo Accords as national treason, and a threat to the existence of the state of Israel, which led to his decision to assassinate Rabin.
Text adapted from Wikipedia.
See also Conspiracy buffs buoyed by Rabin assassination and A Decade After Rabin’s Killing, Israeli Democracy Is Thriving.
by John Brown · Wednesday, August 31st, 2005
BBC News reports:
“Families of Israeli Arabs shot dead on a bus in Galilee are not considered terrorism victims because their killer was Jewish, the defence ministry says.
Under Israeli law, only attacks by “enemies of Israel” are considered terrorism, the ministry said.
The ruling means families of the four victims will not be entitled to the lifelong monthly payments given to Israeli victims of Palestinian attacks. “
Further coverage: JPost, Ha’aretz, AP
by John Brown · Saturday, August 13th, 2005
“A contingent of over 50 Rabbis and other Orthodox Jews, representing Orthodox Jews from throughout New York State, assembled Thursday, August 11, 2005, on the steps of the City Hall of New York, to bring to the attention of the public that they are in opposition to [former Kahane henchman] Assemblyman Hikind’s views supporting the use of Racial Profiling against people of Middle-Eastern descent by the New York City Police Department.”
by John Brown · Monday, August 1st, 2005
A New York assemblyman who started his political career as a lieutenant of extremist Meir Kahane called on the NYPD to use racial profiling to target “people of Middle Eastern descent” when searching bags on mass transit. The bag searches began more than a week ago.
UPI newswire quoted Assemblyman Dov Hikind as saying, “They all look a certain way … It’s all very nice to be politically correct here, but we’re talking about terrorism.” Ironically, Hikind’s profile on the NY State Democratic Committee website describes him as “A spokesman against discrimination of any kind, Assemblyman Hikind chaired the Assembly’s Subcommittee on Human Rights”
The Fourth Amendment of the US Constitution and Article I, Section 12 of the New York State Constitution protect individuals against unreasonable searches of their person or possessions. Further, it is illegal for police to target people for a search based on personal characteristics like race, ethnicity, or religion.
NYPD deputy commissioner Paul Brown has responded, stating: “Racial profiling is illegal, of doubtful effectiveness, and against department policy.”
by John Brown · Friday, February 11th, 2005
Netanyahu was surrounded at a wedding party by people crying “Jewish blood is not cheap!” and “Murderer, your day will come,” and had objects - possibly including plates - thrown at him.
The senior minister’s bodyguards immediately closed in around him and began making their way to his waiting vehicle to take him from the area. When they arrived at vehicle they realized all the tires had been punctured. Netanyahu was not hurt.
Earlier in the week, Education Minister Limor Livnat was assaulted by a group of Kachniks while (ironically) attending the annual public memorial for Avraham Stern, commander of the Zionist underground terrorist group Lehi a.k.a. “Stern Gang”.
MK Ruhama Avraham said she has been subject to a steamroller of threats after expressing support for disengagement and the prime minister. “I’ve become accustomed to it,” she said. “The threats increase with every vote. And it’s not only on the phone. Before votes, they mill around outside the offices in the Knesset and the message is clear. But it doesn’t bother me.”
BBC News / Arutz Sheva / Reuters
[UPDATE] Hizbollah ‘is plotting to assassinate’ Abbas.
[UPDATE 2] Sharon Orders Jewish Extremist Crackdown
[UPDATE 3] Conflicting reports suggest “the wedding incident” did not transpire.
by John Brown · Saturday, July 24th, 2004
Shin Bet Director Avi Dichter told the Knesset’s foreign affairs and defense committees this week that clandestine right wing settler terror cells and Ayatollah-like right wing Rabbis are are on their old fundamentalist Fatwah trip again, and are reportedly targetting both the Prime Minister and the Al Aqsa mosque.
According to Ha’aretz, Israeli army radio reported that Rabbi Avigdor Neventzal - chief rabbi of Jerusalem’s old city - has said in a speech to High School students (!) that anyone who wants to cede the land of Israel falls under the Halachic category of “din rodef” who can be killed according to Jewish law. Ha’aretz quotes Neventzal as saying:
“It should be known that anyone who wants to give away Israeli land is like a rodef, and certainly land should not be given to idol worshipers”
The Jerusalem Post reports that MK Yuli Tamir (Labor) gave a radio interview, in which she criticized Neventzal for inciting to violence against Israeli leaders. “The next murder is on the way,” Tamir said according to the Cleveland Jewish News. Moments after her interview she received a call on her cell-phone from an unidentified individual who threatened to kill her.
Readers may recall that Yigal Amir, who murdered PM Yitzhak Rabin at a peace rally in 1995, testified at his trial that Halacha mandated the assassination.
“I know Jewish law and ‘Din Rodef’ means that if you’ve tried everything else and nothing works, then you have to kill him.”
The Toronto Star quotes Yossi Klein Halevi, an associate fellow at the Shalem Centre, a Jerusalem think tank as saying:
“I have no doubt the threat is very real. Anyone who has sat with the farther fringes of the settler movement knows this is not contrived”
[Editor's Note] John’s perspective somewhat neglects to recognize that, it is not because religious people are evil, nor even right wingers, that this is such a troubling issue, but rather because these sorts of actions seem to be very inconsistent with the values of peace and justice which seem to be much more fundamental to Judaism. It is a question of theological interpretation more than of politics and madness, and I hope one which we can approach more rationally and delicately than we as a people seem to be doing at the moment.
by John Brown · Thursday, November 13th, 2003
Rabbi Ascherman describes the settlers at Mitzpeh Yitzar as ”fanatical and violent”. [He] found it disturbing that the children of the original wave of settlers were more violent and hard-line than their parent’s generation.
”It’s very sad, the fist wave of settlers have brought their children up to hate. They have nothing but contempt for Palestinians and for Jews like me.”
Courtney Kealy of ABC News writes of a clash between fundamentalist settlers and Rabbis for Human Rights (RHR) over the Palestinian olive harvest in which the rabbis claim they were violently attacked by settlers. The San Francisco Chronicle also covers the destruction of entire groves. The violent physical clash between RHR and the settlers has been written about recently at Al Jazeera.
RHR describes itself as “the only organization in Israel today concerned specifically with giving voice to the Jewish tradition of human rights.”
