In W.W.II there were some few righteous Gentiles who stood with us. They hid us in attics and cellars. They found ways to smuggle us out of danger. They did so at risk to their own lives. There were others who murdered us, who shot us in the streets, starved us to death, beat us to death, gassed us to death. In between stood the silent masses that, by their very silence, also stood against us. Had the masses spoken out, things would have been different. I know this is so, because when the masses of German Christians spoke out about an issue related to the Church (I cannot recall the issue at the moment), Hitler backed down.
Today, when people say, "Kill the Jews wherever you find them," are you with us or against us?
What is happening now in Israel has a precedent, not only with the fate of my people in the Shoah, but also with that of Czechoslovakia before WWII. Do you remember the Sudatenland? I had heard of it, but had no clue of its significance until I read about it in a book recently. You see, the Sudatenland was part of Czech territory and the highly fortified mountains there protected Czechoslovakia from German aggression. To avoid what would have been a very costly battle, Hitler turned to propaganda. You see, there was a German majority living in the Sudatenland. He claimed they were ill treated and oppressed under Czech authority (they were not, they had full voting rights and freedom of expression) and he invented atrocities that had not happened. He convinced the ethnic Germans of the land to have an uprising. He did not care about them, just about taking Czechoslovakia more easily. Once he had the Sudatenland, Czechoslovakia would be defenseless against the German army. He succeeded and the rest is history.
But, you say, the Jews are doing terrible things in Israel to the Palestinians over in the disputed "territories" which you will call occupied. The fact is, the PLO started in 1964 the year I was born and 3 years before the Six Day War in which Israel again fought for survival. The land had been, from 1948 to 1967, under Jordanian rule. When Israel entered there was no electricity, no roads, no telephones for most of those living there. Israel built those things as well as clinics and universities and gradually built up the economy there so that the standard of living was twice that of Arabs in Jordan. The Arab inhabitants of the disputed areas -- Judea and Samaria -- were allowed to hold elections for leadership of their towns and cities. They were allowed to even publish news papers that contained anti-Israel material.
So what was the first intifada about? Believe it or not, it started when one Israeli truck driver accidentally hit 4 Arabs. The PLO, still there, though without Arafat and company, went to work with propaganda telling the population it had been on purpose, sending out the teens to do battle with large rocks (the size of baseballs) and with gasoline bombs. This is the same PLO who would not let Israel build housing for those in the "camps," the same PLO who wanted those camps to remain in place because they were more apt to produce a generation that they could mold in their image. And so they did. This is why the "refugee camp" next to Jenin (a camp that is nonetheless not made of tents, but buildings crowded together) has produced so many of the terrorists who have gone out of their way to murder Jewish civilians. This is the same PLO who, since Oslo, has ruined the economy Israel helped build. This is the same PLO who trains children from age 3 to be suicide bombers, who teaches them that "Palestine" is from the sea to the Jordan, who teaches them to "kill the Jews wherever you find them."
And so it has been, as Jews have been murdered in Israel and antisemitism has risen in Europe. Arab immigrants are responsible for most (but not all) of the violent incidents, such as fire bombing synagogues and physical harm to individual Jews. The governments of Europe are not doing enough to prevent violent and non-violent acts of antisemitism. Four hundred incidents of antisemitism have occurred recently in France alone (360 just in April according to the AP), with little done to try and prevent more such incidents. This is just a drop in the bucket worldwide. No, Israeli Jews are not the only ones under siege, but they are certainly the most under siege.
I ask the world, are you with us or against us?
Most of the world is not with us, that is clear. Most of the world is engaging in moral equivalence. Just a look on the cover of Newsweek shows the attitude of much of the world ... the suicide bomber is portrayed as the victim along with the innocent Israeli girl who was among her many victims. The world is telling us, die quietly. Stop fighting back, after all, you deserve it. But we do not deserve it any more than the Czechoslovakians deserved it in W.W.II, any more than the Jews then deserved to have synagogues burned and 6 million murdered. I realize 6 million of us have not yet been murdered. But the Shoah began with the burning of some synagogues, bricks through the windows of Jewish owned stores, and a "few" Jews being killed.
Are you with us or against us? Will you speak out or sit on the fence?
I will tell you that during W.W.II there was an SS unit comprised of Muslim volunteers raised up by the Grand Mufti of Jerusalem. After WWII, while half of Europe was examining its behavior during the Shoah, there were those in the Arab world who were continuing in the Jew-hating tradition of the Mufti -- a man who was instrumental in the establishment of the final solution. Once Hitler knew that there was not a place for the Jews and was encouraged by the Mufti to exterminate them rather than let them go to the British Mandate of Palestine, the final solution took shape. Arafat is related by clan to that same Mufti, as was the "moderate" Arab Hussein who was killed a while back, a moderate who engaged in terror.
Are you with us or against us?
At Washington DC, over 150,000 knew the truth. There were righteous Gentiles standing with us there. My local paper (The Cleveland Plain Dealer) put the rally, not on page 1, but on page 4. That would not be so bad, if the pro-Palestinian rally was not on page one 2 days later. The world turns a blind eye and says, die quietly Jew.
So, I ask again, are you with us or against us? Will you speak out or sit by in silence again?
Sources referenced:
Raf Casert, Jewish Chiefs: Anti-Semitism Grows
Jack Kelly, Jews Under Siege
Benjamin Netanyahu, A Durable Peace
Zimmerman, Truth Under Siege
