November 17, 2003
"Synagogue bombing in Istanbul"
On Saturday November 15, 2003, when the largest synagogue in Istanbul, Turkey, was packed full of worshippers on Shabbat, al-Qaida set off a bomb in front of the weakest part of the synagogue, its stained glass windows. The result was 23 dead Jews and over 300 wounded Jews. See Life and Death in Istanbul and Jihad in Istanbul.
I don't know if you realize this, but Jew-hatred (what is also called antisemitism) is on the rise world-wide. As some have said, Jews are like a canary in the coal mine. The world is very unhealthy right now, as they are attacking the canary. The main-stream press is not reporting it, and in fact, in my opinion, many of them are helping it to spread through their one-sided reporting on Israel. Truth is truth and there is no need to "balance" the truth by minimizing the death of Jews and maximizing the deaths of suicide bombers and planners.
June 9, 2003
Jews in Judea, Samaria, and Gaza
Many people are big on dismantling the Jewish towns in Judea, Samaria, and Gaza. You may know Judea and Samaria as "the West bank" a name given to it by the Jordanians in 1948 in an attempt to erase the Jewish connection to the land. Judea and Samaria were what they were called for millenia until then, and I for one prefer to call them by that age old name. Okay, back to the main topic. Jews have lived in Judea, Samaria, and Gaza for thousands of years. Surprised? I am sure some of you are, because the media has not been really big on giving you the history, only a narrow view of the last 60 years at most.
So, Jews lived in Judea, Samaria, and Gaza for thousands of years. In 1929 Jews were kicked out of Hebron with a massacre. In 1948 Jews were kicked out of their homes in Judea, Samaria, and Gaza by the Arabs. Most of the so-called settlements were built on land that was either (a) owned by Jews before 1948, (b) built on land purchased by Jews after 1967, or (c) built on land that was owned by the government. Since 1967, Arabs from other nations have also arrived in Judea, Samaria, and Gaza and settlements have been built by them as well.
We have a double standard in the world in the expectations of the Jews vs. the Muslim Arabs. The Jews are supposed to dismantle towns built on land they own, most of which they purchased outright at exorbitant prices. No Arab settlments are to be vacated, even if built by recent illegal immigrants. The Jews are supposed to allow Arabs to continue to live inside the "green line" with complete citizenship (which they currently have) and security. However, on the other hand, the Jews are supposed to vacate a land that, with the exception of the years 1948-1967 they have lived in for thousands of years, from a time dating before the first Arab arrived in the country. Appearantly the Jews must live up to one standard in treating their fellow humans, but the Arabs, according to the world, are not to be able to treat a Jewish minority well, are not expected to even tolerate a Jewish minority. In my opinion, that is prejudice both against the Jews and against the Arabs (since it indicates a belief by the world that Arabs cannot be expected to treat a minority well, nor are they able to do so). Well, that is my 2 cents on the issues.
April 28, 2003
15,000 Jewish Girls Lost
No, these girls didn't get lost in the woods. These girls, as young as 12, are from homes of little economic means or from broken homes are being encouraged by Arabs to run away. 15,000 of them have. The Arabs initially pose as Jews, typically in grocery stores, and give the child some sort of treat... something nice they could not get at home. They seem to care, and eventually the child runs away with the Arab. They are treated as children until they are old enough, then made, basically, into slaves who produce babies. According to Jewish law, their children are Jews, and yet they are raised as Arabs. 15,000 girls each having children who will grow up believing they are Arabs and possibly hating their fellow Jews. Even if each of these girls only has 4 children, that is 60,000 Jews in one generation who will believe they are Arabs. If the men marry Arabs, they will have truely Arab children. Any girl children that they have will raise yet another generation of Jews who believe they are Arabs. Am I the only one that thinks that this is kidnapping? (see the article at Aish.com )
April 25, 2003
How can you balance this?
In answering a post by someone, I did a bit of research and found the following statistics. Between September 29, 2000 and March 16, 2003 there were 16,733 attacks against Jews in Israel (see IMRA). Please notice the huge number of attacks against Jews, which this is refering to here. Non-Jews have been killed for the crime of sitting at a Jewish restaurant, for sure, but the targets were Jews. Can there be balance when 16,733 attacks occur in the course of 3 years 6 months? Now 3 years, 6 months, is roughly 1277 days. 16733/1277 = 13 attacks each day on average How do you balance that out? What would we here in America feel if that was happening to us and the world was complaining about checkpoints and the hardships they make? Did you hear Americans complaining about checkpoints when we had a sniper in DC? Of course not, as the check points were for our own protection. So how can we try to be balanced about this... rather we should speak the truth and call murder and attempted murder what they are without trying to white wash them or excuse it.
April 21, 2003
Differing visions: IDF vs Terrorists
The IDF has a code, called "purity of arms" that incorperates its best traditions and calls for the IDF soldier to lay down his life to avoid civilian casualties. This explains why 82% of Arabs killed in the course of the Oslo uprising were combatants. Yes, this also means 18% of them were civilians. However, we can contrast this with the Israeli fatalities inflicted by the terrorists: 70% are non-combatants, only 30% are combatants (source, statistics for Israeli deaths valid as of April 21, 2003). This was 80% non-combatants back in February 2003 (see An Engineered Tragedy) We must also remember that most sources list Arab deaths indescriminatly, that is, they list those who were killed by their fellow Arabs, those who have been killed by themselves in homicide bombings, and those killed in "work accidents" as if they were Israel's fault. Obviously Israel can be credited or blamed with only those deaths they actually caused. Unfortunately, in all of these statistics, we leave out the 256 Israelis murdered by terrorists from 1993 to 2000, a direct result of Arafat and Oslo.
April 20, 2003
The Blood Libel
The blood libel is a rather enduring lie that, I just learned, has its orgins with the Greeks. Until today, I thought it originated with the Christians in Europe. It turns out, they adopted it from the Greeks and Romans and morphed it to their own "needs". Unfortunately, the blood libel is still alive and well, flourishing today in the Arab world. They seem to use it for more than just Passover, the holiday to which Christian Europe once attached it. The Arabs also connect it with Purim. There is a timely article on the Passover blood libel at Front Page Magazine
April 13, 2003
Life Expectancy of Israeli-Arabs Higher than Danes, Europeans
According to the liberal Israeli paper Haaretz, the average life expecancy of Israeli-Jews and Israeli-Arabs is only 1.2 years different. Part of that gap is likely due to a higher infant mortality rate is that some Muslems marry family members (there is no mortality gap between Israeli-Jews and Israeli-Arab Christians and this is thought to be the reason for the gap between Israeli-Jews and Israeli-Arab Christians). Interestingly, as the heading of this says, the life expectancy of Israeli-Arabs is higher than that of the Danes. Israeli-Arab males live, on average, 74.4 years. In Denmark, males live 74.1 years. Also interesting is that this is significantly higher than the life expectancy of Europe as a whole, which is 69.6 years.
The Christian Israeli-Arab community, it should be noted, puts more children through school, including higher education, than the Muslim sector. As a result, Christian Israeli-Arabs are more successful economically.
