Curioser
and Curioser: Hamas and Evil Disguised as Righteousness, Redoux
View video discussion ( starts at 1:57)
https://www.youtube.com/live/HCyJ_n8hReg?si=2i0UDIo9YJVbuDQL&t=6997
Let’s
start with the good news:
The
Academy Museum of Motion Pictures opens its permanent Exhibit on the role of
Jews in founding Hollywood and fighting antisemitism at the same time. I was
one of the first to reach out to the curator, Dara Jaffe, and share our
information about HTBE and the founders of the industry:
Introduction
to the exhibit:
Entrance
to exhibit:
https://www.facebook.com/reel/995230445447525
A
time line 3D display on Hollywood and the growth of the industry:
The
exhibit opens officially opens May 19 at the Museum at Wilshire and Fairfax.
Then,
Edan Golan returned home in triumph from Eurovision:
https://youtu.be/lJYn09tuPw4?t=143
Eden
Golan took 5th place at the Eurovision Festival, even though some
judges refused to vote for her. She was number 2 in the popular vote.
Then,the
bad news, there is the sad thought, that
this was the saddest Yom Hazikaron, Memorial Day, and the least celebrated Yom
HaAztamaut, Israel Independence Day, since the rise of the State of Israel/
[Note:
LA Times and other media focused entirely on the Palestinian Nakba, ignoring
the Jews expelled completely from Gaza and the West Bank, including the ancient
Jewish community of the old city of Jerusalem, while many Arabs were able to
stay inside the new Jewish State, and ignoring completely, the creation of a
Jew-clean ( Judenrein) Arab middle east, an indigenous population going back 2,500
years ago]
We
have gone through college students throwing temper tantrums at graduations,
Egypt
closes food shipments to Gaza because it is miffed that Israel cut off Hamas’
access from Sinai into Gaza,( and Egypt stands to lose billions in illicit arms
dealing across the tunnels network),
Hamas rockets the Israeli crossing, causing a
blockage at that end,
and
world organizations then blame Israel for the blockage, preaching that mass
starvation is immanent- as they preached in 2010 and again in December, and
January, and February, and March, and April, and so forth.,”
“Curiouser and curiouser!” Cried Alice
In this mood, I wish to bring to
mind a popular song, some years, that went: to everything, turn, turn, for
every season, turn turn, For everything, a time and place, under heaven.
It then
went on with a litany: A time to be born , a time to die, a time to laugh a
time to cry.
As we
listened to the song, we recognized, of course, that the singers had taken the
verses of Ecclesiastes, the third chapter and set it to music.
La kol, zman va et , lachol
hefetz tachat hashamayim.
A season
is set for everything, a time for every experience under heaven.
A time
for being born, and a time for dying and so forth
The end
of the litany is
“A time
for war and a time for peace."
The
wise man. Koheleth told us, knows not to make sweeping generalizations. Vague
platitudes, broad sweet sounding phrases or blanket condemnations can not be
applied to all situations. There
is a time for weeping and there is a time for laughing.
How
many times have we seen a time for laughing, only to have it overturned in the
blink of an eye.
If we want contemporary analogies-maybe we are living in
the movie, Groundhog Day, or in some philosopher’s Eternal Return, doomed to
repeat the same events, over and over again .
I can’t forget the lyrics of an Israeli song, from the
1973 Yom Kippur War:
Ani mavtiach lach, yaldah sheli ketanah, she zot tihyeh
hamilchamah ha acharonah-
I guarantee, my dear little child, that this will be the
LAST war.
The euphoria of the PLO_-Israel accords in 1993 gave way to a series of
bloody massive murder of Israelis by bombs on buses and cafes;
The last chance
for an agreement between Arafat and Barak was soon upended by the brutal 2nd
Intifada;
The voluntary withdrawal
from the Gaza strip by Israel in 2005, with money invested from abroad,
the chance for open borders, open harbors and an infrastructure for agriculture
given by Israel—upended again and again by Hamas.
And up till last October, there was a sense that Hamas
had moderated, and Gazans were being allowed into Israel to work, and more
monies from Israel were being pumped into Gaza,
and, in one fell swoop, on one day in October, this balloon too was
burst.
. There
is a time for loving and a time for hating, a time for peace and a time for
war.
The
stance of the moralist calling for Israel to cease-fire unconditionally is inherently
immoral for it allows free reign to the human capacity to evil without check.
It is one thing to avoid war, it is one thing to pursue peace with an enemy in
the hopes of turning an enemy to a friend. But it is another thing to face an
enemy that hides it weapons underground and puts it civilians on roof-tops in
the line of fire , an enemy that has been seen to hide its headquarters in
a hospital and its rockets in a school
building.
It
is true that the Palestinian Authority, in the West Bank, what we historically
call Judea and Samaria, have made their accommodation with Israel, a begrudging
accommodation. So ,too, for sure, have the Egyptians and Jordanians and even
the Saudis, who fear the Islamicist or Salafist jihadi movements, such as the
Moslem Brotherhood, but even more so the Islamist Regime of Iran, which has
sponsored bloodshed in Iraq, Syria, Lebanon, and Yemen. The enemy of my enemy
is my friend.
Israel,
for these entities, is for now, the enemy of my enemy.
At the
core of October 7 is not the anger of Palestinians of Gaza towards Israelis
because they are occupying them. Israel stopped occupying Gaza almost 2 decades ago.
Gaza is very much so in the hands of
such Salafists, known by the abbreviations in Arabic, Hamas, "Islamic Resistance Movement"). (Ḥarakat al-Muqāwamah al-ʾIslāmiyyah) and Hamas has tremendous influence, not just
in Gaza, but also in the West Bank.
We
need to know what they think about Israel and about Jews, even though they officially
pronounce that they are tolerant of Jews. That is what they say to the Western
public. Diplomats like to speak glibly of “ even –handedness” , also provide a
cover up. Hamas has even produced a modern polished version of its founding
charter in 2018.
However, in
their official pronouncements inside Gaza, they take the words of their
founding platform of 1988 platform very seriously and never officially repealed
it. Here are just some of the comments about Jews:
“. . . the Islamic
Resistance Movement aspires to the realization of Allah's promise, no matter
how long that should take. The Prophet, Allah bless him and grant him
salvation, has said:
"The Day of
Judgment will not come about until Moslems fight the Jews (killing the Jews),
when the Jew will hide behind stones and trees. The stones and trees will say O
Moslems, O Abdulla, there is a Jew behind me, come and kill him. . . .”
. . .Initiatives, and so-called peaceful
solutions and international conferences, are in contradiction to the principles
of the Islamic Resistance Movement. There is no solution for the Palestinian
question except through Jihad. Initiatives, proposals and international
conferences are all a waste of time and vain endeavors.
"I
swear by the holder of Mohammed's soul that I would like to invade and be
killed for the sake of Allah, then invade and be killed, and then invade again
and be killed." (As related by al-Bukhari and Moslem). . . .
“With their money, they [that is, Jews] stirred revolutions in
various parts of the world with the purpose of achieving their interests and
reaping the fruit therein. They were behind the French Revolution, the
Communist revolution and most of the revolutions we heard and hear about, here
and there. With their money they formed secret societies, such as Freemasons,
Rotary Clubs, the Lions and others in different parts of the world for the
purpose of sabotaging societies and achieving Zionist interests. With their
money they were able to control imperialistic countries and instigate them to
colonize many countries in order to enable them to exploit their resources and
spread corruption there.”
“There is no war going on anywhere, without having their finger in
it.”
“. . . They aim at undermining societies, destroying values,
corrupting consciences, deteriorating character and annihilating Islam. It is
behind the drug trade and alcoholism in all its kinds so as to facilitate its
control and expansion. Israel, Judaism and Jews challenge Islam and the Moslem
people. "May the cowards never sleep." (http://avalon.law.yale.edu/20th_century/hamas.asp
)
If any of
you have ever read the text of the Protocols of the Elders of Zion or Hitler’s
Mein Kampf, you see that Hamas is all of these ideas supercharged on steroids.
Do our wise
college students not understand what years and years of teaching hatred against
Jews has led to?
We know that diplomats believe these words
can be dismissed as mere puffery. They take at face value the statements made
by Hamas leaders of their respect for Jews at face value. However, founding
documents mean what they state. When Nazi Germany began World War II, Hitler
put aside his avowed hatred of the Soviet Union and authorized the notorious
Ribbentrop- Molotov Treaty. That same profession of peace was swiftly put aside in the blitzkrieg
that swept across to Stalingrad the moment Hitler saw his chance.
Fanatics
mean what they say.
It is with
this gang that our enlightened students are storming the barricades, asking for
the dismantling of the Jewish state, surrounded by 22 Arab States, 23 Islamic
states, surrendering the Jewish people carte blanche to the same fate that has
befallen the people of Lebanon, Syria, Iraq, Yemen, Libya, Algeria, Sudan? Deaths
in the hundreds of thousands!!!
So what can be the recourse of the people of Israel?
The same book of Ecclesiastes says:
Al tehe Tzadik harbe ve
alterasha.
Do not be overly righteous and do not be evil.
The
first part is al Tehey Zadik Harbeh-- Do not be overly righteous, or you
will be dumbfounded. Do not let the wicked get a way. Do not allow the
perpetrators of evil to be rewarded for their deeds. You will pay a horrible
price for it in the long run.
The
second half is also significant. It also says V’ Al terashah .Do not be
wicked, lamah tamut belo itcha Why should you die before your time. Do
not let the need for justice become an excuse for wickedness, for it , too can
only be your undoing.
The
recourse of the people of Israel is that which was clear to our sages--It is
not to roll over and give the perpetrators of evil what they want, for
appeasement can only breed further evil.
It is
also not to descend to the level of the perpetrators, for that, too, is the
path of destruction. And yes, there are useful idiots on the Israeli side , as
well, who destroy food trucks on the way to Gaza, and provide free propaganda
for those who hate us. I must say the same about the people who attacked the
UCLA pro-Pali encampment a few weeks ago—LA Times and CNN made much of the
melee, blaming Jewish extremists, and ignoring the much greater violence that
has taken place by the pro-Palestinians on many campuses.
The extremists do not speak for Israel.
Many, many
Israeli soldiers have been killed, like our grand-nephew Nadav, because the
Israel Defense Forces did not mow down entire towns, as did and still do the
Russians in Ukraine, without any protest, and no Court at the Hague saying a
word. Instead, they tried to focus on getting at the Hamas fighters who use
their underground Metro system for defense, while leaving their people
defenseless.
The
people of Israel now face the difficult challenge of “The Day After” and finding
a solution to the unsolvable morass of Gaza.
I don’t
see any alternative for Israel, for its survival, as the only one homeland for
the Jewish people , other than to grind down an enemy who is willing to fight
to the last drop of someone else’s blood,
and defang this gang of Nazis of its rockets and its tunnels. Perhaps
then, the people who care more for their children than for their hatred will be
ready to lead to a new world and a new future.
We know
that the people of Israel have no other recourse. Colonizers, like the French
in Algeria, could always go home when defeated. The Jews, rightful historic
heirs to the Land of Israel, not colonizers, have no home to go to other than
Israel.
Therefore,
to Hamas we must quote the verse from the Quran that recognizes the promise of
the Land of Israel to the Jews:
And
thereafter We [Allah] said to the Children of Israel: 'Dwell securely in the
Promised Land. And when the last warning will come to pass, we will gather you
together in a mingled crowd.'" [Qur'an 17:104] (http://www.templemount.org/quranland.html
by Shaykh Prof. Abdul Hadi Palazzi, head of the Italian Muslim Assembly).
For the
people of Israel we have are the words that we say at the end of a book of the
Torah:
Chazak, Chazak, V nitchazek.Be strong, be strong, and
may we be strengthened!