Category: News

18 Aug 2022:  The difficulties of conducting work in a troubled land:  When one stays in “victim mode” constantly, one can never do any wrong; your neighbors can never do any right; and it is permissible to exaggerate your neighbor’s wrongs, to lie, and falsify, with no limits.

Pals Trivialize Holocaust; Germans and Israelis Outraged

“Especially for us Germans, any relativization of the Holocaust is unbearable and unacceptable.” — German Chancellor Olaf Scholz speaking to Bild after Abbas’ holocaust trivialization comments in Berlin.  https://www.jpost.com/opinion/article-714943

So – this is what happened.  On 16 Aug 2022, Germany hosted Mahmoud Abbas to give a speech in Berlin.  Abbas is leader of the Fatah party and of the Philistinian leadership in Samaria.  After the speech, a reporter asked Abbas why, after 18 years in power, has he not apologized for the Palestinian terrorists who killed 11 Jewish athletes at the 1972 Olympics in Munich.

Abbas’ response – in Arabic – was to allege that Israel has committed 50 holocausts against the Pals. Ridiculous.  (He said “holocausts” in English; the Hebrew term is “Shoah”).  Clearly, the non-Israeli Arab population has grown from 1 million to 5 million since Israel became a state in 1948. Today, that’s 3 million in Samaria and 2 million in Gaza.  Separately, there are around 2 million Israeli Arabs living in Israel with full citizenship, voting rights and all.

While this is clearly incorrect, this is only part of a global trend.  “Combat Antisemitism Movement” has reported that there were over 214 public comments in the last year trivializing the Shoah, with 37.4% coming from the USA, followed by UK, with Germany in third place.  The report is entitled “Holocaust Trivialization Report: A Burgeoning Threat in 2021-2022 Trend Manifestations and Analysis.”

“The countries that showed the highest rates of Holocaust trivialization were the US, United Kingdom, Germany, Australia and Canada.” https://www.jpost.com/diaspora/antisemitism/article-714904

Therefore, Abbas is not unique in his holocaust trivialization.  However, looking around the world, we cannot find many public officials other than Abbas who wrote their doctoral thesis in holocaust denial.  At a Soviet university in Moscow, he wrote his thesis on the ridiculous claim that the Jews collaborated with the Nazis to create the Holocaust in order to fabricate an excuse to relocate to Israel.

In one press conference, Abbas accuses Israel of “50 holocausts” against the Palestinians, and then talks of building trust? That combination obviously can’t work, and Abbas knows it. https://www.jpost.com/arab-israeli-conflict/article-714940

Incidently, the German Chancellor also rejected Abbas’ use of the word “apartheid” when referring to Israel’s treatment of Arabs:

“Naturally we have a different assessment with a view to Israeli politics, and I want to expressly say here that I do not espouse the use of the word ‘apartheid’ and do not think it correctly describes the situation,” Scholz said. The German chancellor rejected the use of the word ‘apartheid‘ in a meeting with the PA president • Liberman: Abbas is alive today only because of security coordination with Israel. https://www.jpost.com/breaking-news/article-714856

Without drastic change, this Pal leadership could never make any sincere offers of peace with the Jews.  And most of the Pal population agrees with the leadership.

The Fatah party commended Abbas for his comments in Berlin, saying, “Abbas, you are strong.”

Abbas intended to “remind the world of the suffering of the Palestinian people, who deserve an apology for the crimes committed against them.” –Munther al-Hayek, senior Fatah official. https://www.jpost.com/arab-israeli-conflict/article-714930

Germany is so furious, they’ll probably not invite Abbas for a very long time. [Update: As of 5 Sept, 2022, Germany officially apologized for its failure to protect Israeli athletes from the Arab murderers in the 1972 massacre].

Victimhood:  What is the answer–how can the cycle of victimhood ever be broken?  Messiah is the only answer.

2022-08-15:  OK, so here’s a recent timeline:

2022-08-13 Arabs from Bethlehem fired at Jews at Rachel’s Tomb; no injuries. So, these Arabs would be non-Israeli, since Israel gave Bethlehem to the PLO in 1994.  And yes, this refers to that Rachel: Wife of Jacob, who was the son of Isaac and grandson of Abraham.  Remember that Bethlehem is known as “The City of David” for example in Luke 2:11.   https://www.jpost.com/breaking-news/article-714648

— Israel Foreign Ministry (@IsraelMFA) August 14, 2022

2022-08-14 JTOD org update: My village was attacked with Molotov cocktails this Shabbat (11:30 pm on the 12th). Nobody is reported injured. I probably wouldn’t have even known, except that a dear friend overseas (who visits Israel occasionally and watches and prays) picked up this story from the news media and alerted me. This morning I biked over and took this photo, on the security road which encircles my village.

So, here’s the layout:  The Jewish homes on one side, and extra-high / extra-secure version of the security fence on my other side. (See here for the type of security fence we have on the other side of town).  Near the fence pictured, the neighbors have told me previously that sometimes the Arabs throw stones at them, right over that fence. So, this is probably the section of wall where they threw the Molotov cocktails. It’s near the street that was in the reports.  So – I assume that at least one Molotov landed in at least one yard and exploded uselessly. Of course, that means that nobody was sitting in the yard at that time, to enjoy the Shabbat evening breeze.

Behind this fence next to me, the hill is quite steep leading up to the Arab homes in the Arab village next door, so, I think that hill makes it a bit easy for people to toss things over the fence and aim for the Jewish homes. At this point, I’m upset about this; I’m trying to calm down. I reached out to some of the neighbors who are my friends, and heard back from one. The affected street is not far from her mother’s house. So, she and I were able to trade back and forth some dark humor, which takes the edge off a bit. I know that many people would say to me, “It’s all YOUR fault! You deserve to be killed by Arabs!” Whatever.

Today there’s an increased presence of Israeli military activity in town. In the bakery three soldiers came in for lunch, they are tall, strong, and armed to the teeth, and very relaxed, with their sandwiches and iced coffees. These guys are bigger than the regular everyday soldiers I see around town. Also unusual: There’s a field hospital set up on the edge of town, it’s housed inside a converted city bus. So it’s like an ambulance and rolling hospital, combined. I saw a tractor smoothing out the sand on the ground right next to the security fence. That means the Army can easily spot the footprints in the sand, if Arabs had cut thru the fence somewhere. More and more I’m slowly getting over it.  That’s part of the Israeli experience, to get normalized to terror, and carry on with life as if nothing happened.

Living With Constant War in Israel

Comedy from Jackie Mason

“Every Jew is raised to think it’s his moral obligation to help and love the weak and the underdog.”

“Every militant knows that if you are caught trying to kill Jews and happen to get wounded, the Jews are the only people in the history of warfare who will provide the best medical attention in order to save your life. “

Jackie Mason, Jewish comedian, 18 Aug, 2014 in his op-ed found at: https://www.jpost.com/Opinion/Op-Ed-Contributors/Thank-God-for-the-Republican-gentiles-371433

Living With Constant War in Israel

12 Aug 2022, Samaria:  Whenever Israel is attacked by missiles, I switch on the notifications on the Red Alert app in my handheld.  I sometimes choose “all areas,” and sometimes just the areas close to me for alerts. This helps me pray for various locations, as well as make decisions about my own movements, where the nearest bomb shelters are located, and how much time I would have to make it into a shelter before the shrapnel and explosions land.

During Pillar of Defense in 2012, I didn’t have a smart phone, nor did I during Operation Cast Lead in 2008-2009.  By 2014 I had acquired a 5-year-old iPhone 4, second-hand, from a Filipina caregiver from Jerusalem.  So, Protective Edge was my first experience with nationwide missile alerts.  That was also the season that I started taking my own personal fitness more seriously, doing jumping jacks and chin-ups at the local soccer field.

One year ago, we lived through Guardian of the Walls in 2021.  That one was extra odd, because while missiles rained down from Palestinian Arabs in Gaza, local Israeli Arabs (with Israeli citizenship) rose up and attacked their Jewish neighbors on the streets, marking Jews’ doors with symbols for home invasion attacks.  This was odd; normally, Arabs with Israeli citizenship did not express their solidarity with Palestinian Arabs in such a blatant way.

That brings us to August 2022, the three days of missiles during Breaking Dawn.

Back in Dec-Jan 2008-2009, I lived through Operation Cast Lead, which was when Israel unilaterally withdrew all its villages and military presence from Gaza, in a sign of peace.  Within two week, Gazans took that gifted land and used it to fire missiles at Jewish civilians, beginning with Operation First Rain (started when Gaza started heavy Qassam rocket fire on Sderot) and then Operation Cast Lead.

Then, in between all the other wars listed above, we endured “minor wars” such as Summer Rains, Autumn Clouds, Warm Winter, Closed Garden, and Black Belt.

Occasionally, as I check the alerts in the Red Alert app, I also check the comments.  Those fall into two categories:  Arabs who write “death to Jews” and such things, and prayer warriors who write things like “May Y’shua guard and protect the people from harm,” and then occasionally, things like “Israel’s army ought to turn Gaza in to a parking lot,” meaning, bomb it all to the ground in order to stop the missiles for good.

It’s that third category that I’ll address here.  First, Israel, along with the Judaistic perspective, cannot in any way justify the wholesale killing of all the people in any area.  There are many who accuse Israel of doing just that.  Well, that’s a false accusation and here’s why.  Year after year after year, the population of Gaza is still around 1.8 million people.  If Israel set out to wipe them all out, they’re doing quite a poor job of it.  There are those that argue that Palestinians are David and Israel is Goliath.  Well, if that were true, then certainly Israel has enough technology and firepower to do it.  So why don’t they?  Morals.  And in reality, Palestinians are part of a pan-Arabic solidarity that encompasses Egypt, Jordan, Syria, Lebanon, Iran, Iraq, etc.  So Arabs would be the Goliath, and Israel would be the David, in the big picture.  Evidence:  the wars in 1948, 1954, 1967, 1973, 1981 when groups of nations coordinated their armies together in wars against The Jews.  Currently, the strategy is different, with Iran not-so-secretly shipping munitions and money to Arab militias in such as Hamas and Islamic Jihad in Gaza, and Hezbollah in Lebanon and Syria.

Remember all that cash that President Obama sent to Iran in the now-defunct Iran Nuke Deal of 2015? None of that money practically made it to the Iranian civilians.  All of it went to “good causes” such as Hezbollah, Hamas, and the nuclear reactor program that was supposed to be halted.

So, again, despite all this, modern Judaism does not permit, morally, any type of genocide.  “Every life is a world,” as Jews say.  Further, Jews quote the Bible as saying “the stranger that dwelleth with you shall be unto you as one born among you, and thou shalt love him as thyself; for ye were strangers in the land of Egypt: I am the LORD your God.” (Lev. 19:34 KJV).  I must add, that in Leviticus, those same strangers were required to live like the Jews and walk in obedience to the Torah, just like the Jews.  Modern Judaism and modern Israel makes no such requirements upon “strangers,” despite Exodus 12:49 which states, “There shall be one law for the native and for the stranger who sojourns among you.” (Ex. 12:49 ESV).  Modern Judaism attempts to extend the gift of honor and respect to non-Jews, even to Arabs living with or without Israeli citizenship, but without any of the Biblical expectations that such foreigners must obey Biblical instruction.  That’s just the current situation.

Secondly, if Israel were to “wipe them all out,” logically and militarily, just how would that solve anything?  Isn’t there a never-ending stream of terrorists and Jew-haters?  Even for a secular Jew who may not even acknowledge YAH’s existence, or who may subscribe to a different religious belief, this idea is not reasonable.  We are left with managing the situation rather than solving it.  Therefore, Gaza’s Arab population remains growing from around 1.8 million.  Israel’s perspective is expressed in the phrase, “mowing the lawn,” which means, when the terrorists rise up again and start attacking Jewish civilians in their homes and businesses, try to take care of the situation quickly without destroying the whole yard.  Because, every human life is valuable, according to Judaism.

Excerpt from the Jpost article in the photo above (emphasis added):

“The downside, however, is that there is something deeply troubling about hundreds of rockets shot off toward Israel’s population centers becoming routine.

“Some argue that if we didn’t accept these rounds as routine, then we would take pains to end them once and for all. The counterargument is that this is something that you can’t end once and for all; that there are always going to be terrorists out there who want to destroy Israel; and that the healthy and positive response is to just try to minimize their ability to do so as much as possible – through, for instance, periodic military campaigns – and live under this shadow in the most constructive and productive way possible, something Israel has proven wonderfully adept at doing.”

full article at this link (copy paste):  https://www.jpost.com/israel-news/article-714541

So that’s how it is for us as civilians in Israel: Living under the shadow of constant war, but doing so in the most healthy and positive way possible.  Please join me in praying that Israel will continue to find healthy ways to survive with as little harm to Israel’s enemies as possible.

Comedy from Jackie Mason