Anti Jewish Violence on the Increase World Wide

Anti Jewish Violence on the Increase World Wide
©2011 By David Talbot


The disturbing trend around the world of violence specifically targeting Jews seems to be accelerating even as the democracy movements in the Middle East are forcing change in governments.

No country is immune from the anti Jewish violence. What is disturbing is the almost complete lack of coverage in the media, except from the Israeli press. It doesn’t matter that the event takes place in the United States, France, Israel, Libya, or the United Kingdom. But if an Israeli decides to refurbish one little apartment in the West Bank, that’s a cause for world wide condemnation, hand wringing at the UN, and threats of violence in the West Bank, Gaza, and even in America.

Here is a re-cap of a few recent incidents that you probably never saw on American News Outlets:

From Israel: “(Israelnationalnews.com) On Shabbat (March 5th, 2011), a group of Jewish worshipers who had just finished morning prayers at a synagogue adjacent to the Tomb of Shimon Hatzaddik in Jerusalem were savagely attacked by an Arab mob, many of them teenagers from a nearby Arab high school. The worshipers were attacked with stones and bricks.”

From the United States: March 5, 2011, A student has brought a federal civil rights lawsuit against the University of California, Berkeley, saying the university did not protect her from being attacked because she is Jewish. Her suit alleges that Husam Zakharia, a fellow student and the head of Students for Justice in Palestine, rammed into her with a metal cart because of the pro-Israel sign she was holding during a pro-Israel demonstration on the Berkeley campus on March 5, 2010.

From Australia: “Between October 1, 2008 and September 30, 2009, an unprecedented 962 reports of anti-Jewish violence, vandalism, harassment and intimidation were received by Australian Jewish organizations”.

And the latest from Israel: An attack by Palestinian Arabs, which is being aired here in the United States, murdered a family of 5 in their home yesterday (March 11th) in a West Bank settlement. Included in the dead were 3 children, one of whom was an infant, all stabbed to death. Do I need to ask how the murder of innocents can ever be justified by anyone?

Here in the United States, Peter King (R-NY), started hearings on “Home-Grown” terrorism on Thursday, March 10th. His premise is that U.S. Muslim organizations are not doing enough to assist authorities in identifying who the potential terrorists, living among us, may be. Indeed many mosques preach Sharia Law and encourage followers to take up arms against Americans, and American Institutions.

Just prior to the Senate Hearings, an article published in The Hill, and quoted in Newsmax, indicated, “Some members of U.S. Jewish organizations, backed by several congressmen, are raising questions about the Obama administration’s commitment to fighting anti-Semitism. They are raising the concerns in light of a dangerous increase in attacks on Jews and Jewish organizations around the world.”

These include violent attacks on synagogues and individuals in France, spray-painted swastikas and desecration of Jewish graves in Germany, and assertions by Venezuelan strongman Hugo Chavez's government that "Semitic banks" have been ruining the economy.” The Hill reported.

Now we are being told by the Administration, and others, including many liberal U.S. Jewish organizations, that referring to terrorists as radical Muslims is improper. That it is stereotyping or profiling. That the overwhelming majority of the U.S. Muslim community is peaceful and law-abiding.

As long as the Obama Administration, and until this “Religion of Peace” take concrete action to turn around the terrorist mentality rampant in their community, things will only get worse.

Anyway, that’s my opinion, what’s yours?

Shalom,

David Talbot

More Thoughts on the Middle East

More Thoughts on the Middle East
©2009 David Talbot

There is an old expression, “No good deed goes unpunished!” I can’t remember the last time I heard it, but I thought about it this week as US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton praised Israeli PM Netanyahu’s concession on settlements in the West Bank and East Jerusalem. Her praise was not for what it lacked (a complete freeze) but for the easing of the Israeli position. In other words, it was a start.

Of course, any praise of Israel, no matter how feint, is cause for an immediate knee jerk reaction by the Arab world. The outcry was so great that Secretary Clinton had to “explain” her comments at her next stop in Morocco.

Unfortunately, any progress in the Arab world by President Obama’s apology tour and pronunciation that America is not a Christian nation has been squandered. The current perception in the Arab world, as seen on all the news channels last week, is that the USA has done a flip and is now back to it’s unilateral support of Israel.

Meanwhile, Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, has signaled that he is not going to run for office because of the impasse in peace negotiations. Peace negotiations for the Palestinian leadership means: either the Israeli’s give in to all it’s demands, or we won’t come to the table.

The situation for the United states in the Middle East is not unique. We do not have a clearly formulated policy, that reflects our position on the goal of the Israeli-Palestinian peace process. In fact, we do not have a clearly formulated policy on North Korea, Iran, Pakistan, Afghanistan, Iraq, Russia, or any other situation on earth. This lack of a cohesive foreign policy emboldens our enemies and confuses our friends.

We jump on Israel for defending themselves. Yet, we have not figured out how to deal with the unstable governments in Pyongyang and Tehran who are not only actively building nuclear armament facilities, but are also the main suppliers of terrorists around the world. Just this week Israel intercepted an Iranian vessel carrying tons of munitions to those “peaceful” Hezbollah terrorists.

If the Obama administration in Washington does not get it’s foreign policy act together, and soon, the next 3 years will be very dangerous for us, at home and abroad. At some point, the powder keg will be ignited by our only ally in the Middle East, Israel, for it’s own survival. Even Israel has come to understand: with friends like us, who needs enemies?

Anyway, that’s my opinion.

Next Week: Why do Jewish Holidays fall on different days every year?

Holding Islam to Account

From Amil Imani: http://www.amilimani.com
Friday, 10 November 2006

Islam has spawned many sects that are master practitioners of the art of double standards. As far as Muslims are concerned, what is good for Muslims is not good for the non-Muslims; and what is bad for Muslims is good for non-Muslims.

What complicates matters is that there is no way of knowing which of the dozens of at-each-other's-throat sects is the legitimate Islam. As soon as Muhammad died, his religion of peace became a house of internal war: jockeying for power and leadership started, sects formed and splintered into sub-sects, and bloodletting began in earnest.

The internal infighting in Islam is presently playing in full color - in red - most dramatically, in the Iraqi theater. Shiite raid Sunni civilians, slaughter them like sheep, and toss their bodies like trash in the streets or the rivers. The Sunnis return the favor with just as much viciousness and savagery. Question: If this is the way these Muslims treat each other, how would they deal with the infidels if they had the chance?

Answer: These devoted followers of Muhammad would deal with the infidels exactly the way Muhammad did: behead the non-believers, take them as slaves to hold or sell, or make them pay back-breaking jizyeh - poll taxes.

Some may object that writings like this are little more than hate-mongering and fanning the fire that rages between Islam and the non-Islamic world. They may further play the Islamic apologists' few, well-worn propaganda cards as evidence for their contention that Islam is not what its detractors claim. Here are the few favorite cards:

* "There is no compulsion in religion," says the Koran. (But the full context is never shown.)* Islam means "peace," so Islam is a religion of peace.

* "For you, your religion, and for me, my religion," Muhammad reportedly said.

The Muslims and their apologists quickly run out of their few cards, and the rest of the Islamic deck is all about intolerance, hatred and violence toward the infidels, toward all others who are not true Muslims, and even toward those who consider themselves Muslims. Shiites, for instance, judge the Sunnis as traitors to Islam, and Sunnis condemn the Shiites as heretics. Each side deems the other worthy of death and hellfire.

This internecine Islamic war of the religion of peace is not confined to the Shiite-Sunni divide. There are so many internal divisions within each side that listing and describing them comprehensively would be an encyclopedic work.

So, who is right? What are the facts about Islam and how does Islam impact the ever-shrinking village Earth and its inhabitants? Admittedly, this is a huge question and cannot be answered satisfactorily in one article. However, some facts can be presented to help the reader decide.

There is no need to belabor the point that Islam is not, and has never been, a religion of peace. The word Islam is derived from taslim, which means "submission," while the term for "peace" is solh. Another derivation of the word taslim is salamat, which means "good health" and so on.

Irrespective of what the term Islam may mean, the facts on the ground conclusively demonstrate Islam's violent nature from its very inception. No need to go back to the time of Muhammad and examine the historical records. Just a few contemporary events should make the point.

Here is a partial list: the savage Shiite-Sunni bloodletting in Iraq; the barbarism of the resurgent Taliban in Afghanistan; the genocide in Sudan's Darfur region; the Somali killings; the Iranian mullahs' murder of their own people and support of mischief abroad; the cross-border attack on Israel by Lebanese Hizbullah; the incessant terrorist acts of Hamas and Islamic Jihad, and the fatwas of the Palestinians against Israel; the bombing of Shiite mosques in Pakistan, and the Shiite retaliation against soft, innocent and civilian targets.

Clearly, there is no place on the planet where Muslims reside that is in peace from the religion of peace. Spain, France, Holland, England, Thailand and Indonesia have already been attacked, while others, such as Belgium, have been threatened and sanctioned.

Stretching the benefit of the doubt beyond limits, one may believe that all these acts of horrors are committed by a small minority of thugs and radicals who happened to be Muslims. Fine, let us ignore all those "fringes" for now - those who are giving Islam a bad reputation. And never mind Saudi Arabia, the cradle of barbarism, fixed in formaldehyde since Islam's inception. Also, let us overlook the dastardly Shiite fanatics presently ruling (ruining) the great nation of Iran. Iranian Shiite Hitlerists are hell-bent on wiping Israel off the face of the planet, while viciously devastating Iran's own largest minority - the Baha'is, people universally-recognized as law-abiding and peaceful.

Would someone account for what is happening in the "civilized" Islamic country of Egypt? The world owes Egypt a debt of gratitude for giving it the Muslim Brotherhood - the lead promoter of Sunni hatred toward the infidels, with chapters and front organizations in much of the world. With typical hypocrisy, the Egyptian government claims that the Muslim Brotherhood is outlawed, when, in actuality, the Brotherhood holds twenty-five percent of the seats in the Egyptian parliament. The same country that gave the world vicious American-killers like Al-Zawahiri is the recipient of huge largess from the American taxpayer.

The latest shameful action of the Egyptian government is the issuance of identity cards that require listing of one's religion. In order to be issued an ID card, which is essential for just about any and all exercises of the rights of citizenship, the individual must list his religion as one of the three sanctioned faiths - Islam, Christianity or Judaism. No one is allowed to leave the religious affiliation blank or list any other religion. Buddhists, Hindus, Baha'is, or agnostics and atheists, have to either lie and fake a religious affiliation, or run the serious risk of having to survive as non-entities in the "crown jewel" of modern and moderate Islamic society.

These are the conditions on the ground wherever Islam rules. Violence of all forms is endemic to Islam and is not confined to any fringes. Islam itself is the fringe. A fringe that is oppressive, hateful of others and violent to the core.

The world must confront Islam and demand that it mends its ways in conformity with the Bill of Rights, according to which every man, woman and child is fully entitled to equal treatment under the law, irrespective of any and all considerations.