We welcome your comments to this and any other CIJR publication. Please address your response to: Rob Coles, Publications Chairman, Canadian Institute for Jewish Research, PO Box 175, Station H, Montreal QC H3G 2K7 –
Contents:
[NB: Our Latest Israzine is Now Online! "Zionism, An Indigenous Struggle:
Aboriginal Americans and the Jewish State." Click the Following Link to View]
Coping With Barbaric, Religiously Inspired Terrorism.: Isi Leibler, Candidly Speaking, Nov. 26, 2014— The horror that engulfed the entire nation in the wake of the barbaric murder of Jews engaged in prayer in a Jerusalem synagogue remains palpable.
Sunni Political Islam: Engine of Israeli-Palestinian Conflict: Jonathan Spyer, PJ Media, Nov. 22, 2014— An oft-repeated sentiment currently doing the rounds in discussions of the Israeli-Palestinian issue is that it is imperative that the conflict not become a “religious” one.
We Are Home. We are Staying. We're Not Going Away.: Gil Troy, Jerusalem Post, Nov. 27, 2014 — The Palestinian movement’s self-destructive streak continues.
When Words Have No Meaning: Michal Cotler-Wunsh, Times of Israel, Nov. 19, 2014— When words have no meaning, it does not matter what values parents inculcate into their children from the day that they are born…
The Bloody Effects of Antisemitism: Rafael Barak, National Post, Nov. 24, 2014
Abbas and Fatah Show Their True Colors… in Arabic: Rachel Bresinger, Jerusalem Post, Nov. 17, 2014
The “Status Quo” on the Temple Mount: Nadav Shragai, JCPA, Nov. 13, 2014
Outremont Sukkah Battle is the Latest Case of Harassment of Hasidim: Leila Marshy, Montreal Gazette, Nov. 19, 2014
COPING WITH BARBARIC, RELIGIOUSLY INSPIRED TERRORISM
Isi Leibler
Candidly Speaking, Nov. 26, 2014
The horror that engulfed the entire nation in the wake of the barbaric murder of Jews engaged in prayer in a Jerusalem synagogue remains palpable. Although there have been other devastating acts of terror against innocent civilians, this time it was clearly religiously motivated. It was undoubtedly inspired by the incitement and despicable lies repeatedly broadcast by our purported peace partner, Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, who created frenzy among Muslims by alleging that Israelis would “contaminate” the Temple Mount by praying there and then invade and destroy Al Aqsa mosque. Such outbursts are reminiscent of the Arab riots in the 1930s. Abbas also sent his condolences to the family of a terrorist slain while attempting to murder a Jew the previous week, hailing him as a “martyr” who “rose to heaven while defending our people’s rights and holy places.” This was followed by false allegations that Israelis had murdered a Jerusalem Arab bus driver, even though a Palestinian coroner confirmed that it was a suicide. To top it off, the day following King Abdullah’s meeting with Prime Minister Netanyahu in Jordan in order to ease tensions, Abbas called on his people to launch “a day of rage” against Israelis.
This latest escalation of incitement is yet another extension of the traditional hatred against Jews inculcated among the Arabs but which accelerated after the Oslo accords. Yasser Arafat and then Abbas have effectively brainwashed generations of Arabs — from kindergarten age — into fanatically hating Jews and sanctifying as “martyrs” those willing to sacrifice their lives and gain paradise by killing them. The Palestinians have, in fact, been molded into a criminal society adopting a culture of death comparable only to the Nazis who, once in power, also brainwashed Germans into committing barbaric crimes. And those, including Jews, who morally equate this monstrous society with Israel because the Jewish state like any country also includes deviants and degenerates, are making obscene analogies.
Every level of Israeli society, from the leadership to the media and down to the man in the street, reacts with shock, horror, disgust and condemnation against our deviants. Contrast this to the public display, not merely in Gaza but also in Ramallah, Bethlehem and Nablus, as Palestinians celebrated the most recent horror their “martyrs” had inflicted on Jews praying in a synagogue. It is noteworthy that our “peace partner” Abbas had to be cajoled twice by U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry (who subsequently thanked him profusely) for condemning this latest act of terror. Yet even when he did, he had the chutzpah to blame Israel for inciting Muslims by repeating his lies that Israel is attacking Al Aqsa mosque. His Fatah spokesmen immediately stressed that he was forced to make the statement for “diplomatic” reasons. Furthermore, Sultan Abu Al-Einein, his senior adviser and member of the Fatah Central Committee, praised those who carried out the synagogue massacre, stating, “Blessed be your quality weapons, the wheels of your cars, your axes and kitchen knives because [they are being used] according to Allah’s will. We are the soldiers of Allah.”
These murders, some of which were committed by Arab Israelis who worked and interfaced with Israelis, have had a devastating impact on good relationships between Israeli Jews and Arabs. Understandably many Jews now feel uncomfortable and suspicious of their Arab neighbors. The majority of Israeli Arabs are law-abiding and wish to live in peace with us but major efforts are required to convince Jews to regain their trust in those Arabs living and working among them. This will require more than government and media appeals calling for tolerance. Much will depend on whether there are moderate responsible Arabs willing to speak out, condemn the terrorists and take active steps to effectively excommunicate the minority of fanatics in their midst — including their Knesset representatives who currently openly identify with the terrorists and praise their vile acts. The outrageous public celebrations by the Arab residents of the east Jerusalem neighborhood of Jabel Mukaber are an example of what must no longer be tolerated. This village was an incubator of dozens of terrorist attacks, including the recent synagogue massacre, the murder of the eight Merkaz Harav students in 2008 and many others. The family of the murderers publicly proclaimed: “We are proud of what they did. … They are heroic martyrs.” Paradoxically, the village pleaded with the High Court to remain on the Israeli side of the separation barrier.
We must adopt tough measures if we are to avoid a breakdown between Israeli Jews and the Arab minority. The first step must be for the government to reinforce security, including in Arab areas that had until now been unsupervised. This is an awesome challenge and requires punitive measures for those engaged in anti-state or antisocial activities such as stone throwing, destruction of private property and incitement against the state. The homes of the terrorists’ families should be destroyed and the residence status of convicted terrorists and their families revoked, as this will serve as a major deterrent even to those willing to die in order to kill Jews. Should the international community condemn this as an infraction of human rights or the U.S. again complain that such steps “harm the interests of peace,” we should remind them that it is our lives that are at stake and that they should not interfere. Beyond that, we should now repudiate the misplaced displays of goodwill we have made over the years in order to placate the international community. These have been counterproductive and only served to camouflage the Palestinians’ criminal society and culture of death….
[To Read the Full Article Click the Following Link—Ed.]
ENGINE OF ISRAELI-PALESTINIAN CONFLICT
Jonathan Spyer
PJ Media, Nov. 22, 2014
An oft-repeated sentiment currently doing the rounds in discussions of the Israeli-Palestinian issue is that it is imperative that the conflict not become a “religious” one. This sentiment, guaranteed to set heads nodding in polite, liberal company, stands out even within the very crowded and competitive field of ridiculous expressions of historical ignorance found in discussion of the Israeli-Palestinian issue. This sentiment is connected to the recent wave of terror attacks in Jerusalem, which are the result of Palestinian claims that Israel is seeking to alter the “status quo” at the Temple Mount. As this theory goes, up until now this conflict had mainly been about competing claims of land ownership and sovereignty, but it is now in danger of becoming about “religion,” and hence turning even more intractable. So this must be prevented.
In objective reality, the conflict between Jews and Arab Muslims over the land area between the Jordan River and the Mediterranean Sea has been, from its very outset, inseparable from “religion.” On the Arab/Palestinian/Muslim side, recent events in the Levant (specifically in Syria and Iraq) ought to have taught us just how very flimsy and contingent the supposed “secular, national” identities of the local populations are. Both these identities have now largely been eclipsed, replaced by sectarian, ethnic, and religious markers of loyalty. As Professor Mordechai Kedar pointed out in a recent article, there is no reason to think that a “Palestinian” national identity is any stronger or more durable than either of these neighboring constructs. This does not mean, of course, that the Arabic-speaking population of the area is not mobilized for struggle. The events of recent days suggest a murderous commitment to the fight. The engine for this commitment, however, is a religious one. The engine is the determination to prevent the Jews from in any way, be it ever so minor, infringing on the situation of de facto Arab Muslim domination of the Temple Mount/ Haram al-Sharif area. This commitment is not a new development; it has in fact been the driving force of the conflict throughout.
The very first major instances of Arab Muslim violence against Jews in the 20th century were related to this self-same area. In 1929, it was precisely an attempt by Jews to assert Jewish prayer rights at the Western Wall that led to a furious Arab and Muslim counter-reaction. This reaction led to the slaughter of over one hundred Jews and the destruction of an ancient Jewish community (in Hebron). The supposed threat to the mosques at the Haram al-Sharif and the alleged desire of the Jews to build the Third Temple continued to form a staple in Arab propaganda against the Zionists in the 1930s and 1940s. This was a time when the nascent Palestinian “national” movement was led by a man holding a position of religious authority: Jerusalem Mufti Haj Amin al-Husseini.
This centrality of religion continued to fire the various movements fighting Israel. The very name “Fatah,” for example, which is often – absurdly — described as a “secular” movement, is a religious term. “Fatah” is in Arabic a term literally meaning to “open,” but is used in context to mean “to conquer a land for Islam.”
The central role of religion in this conflict has served to prevent the eventual resignation to and compromise with Israel’s presence, which many early Zionist leaders predicted. This prediction was based on similar national conflicts elsewhere, where after a period of struggle the two sides grow tired and settled their difference, cutting a deal. But religious sentiments have a way of not growing tired.
WE ARE HOME. WE ARE STAYING. WE'RE NOT GOING AWAY.
Gil Troy
Jerusalem Post, Nov. 27, 2014
The Palestinian movement’s self-destructive streak continues. A week after the barbaric butchering of Jews praying in Har Nof, we can already declare: their terrorism failed. These nihilists mistake our tears as signs of weakness. But these tears energize us. The Palestinians and their collaborators worldwide should have learned by now: We are home. We are staying. We are not going away. Note, during the massacre, many people, including the 30-year-old Druze policeman, Zidan Saif, ran toward danger to save others, not away from it to save themselves. Such selflessness reflects a vibrant community terrorists cannot terrorize.
The ugly slaughter united Israel in love. One of the 25 orphaned by the attack, Michal Levine, the daughter of Rabbi Kalman Levine, told Arutz Sheva that while flying home from Miami, strangers comforted her: “a Chabad rabbi and a leftist couple from Israel. They cried together with me.” Palestinian terrorists foster this sweet, primal communal unity, even if Israelis sometimes forget it amid passionate political debates. Zionist resilience repudiating anti-Zionist evil is an old story. When terrorists killed his teenage cousin in 2001, Rabbi Yehoshua Fass moved to Israel – establishing Nefesh b’Nefesh which has helped over 40,000 people move since. That’s Zionist math – we overcompensate for each tragedy exponentially. Every act of terror unifies Israelis and reinforces Zionism’s mission. Each death, each injury, makes a Palestinian state less likely and the Jewish state stronger.
We are home. Israel is the Jewish people’s homeland. The link is deep and enduring, meaningful and nourishing, multi-dimensional and mutually reinforcing. The Jews are a people, not just a religion, with a homeland and collective rights to it, like other nations. From the beginning – Bereisheit, Genesis – the Jewish people bonded with Eretz Yisrael, the Land of Israel. In the Bible, the Jewish people’s founding moment is a land-based moment. Abram becomes Abraham when, leaving his birthplace, he goes home to his new homeland, Israel. God promises: I will make of you a great people. The Jewish people were reborn when we regained our freedom by leaving Egypt and wandering home to Israel – despite a 40-year desert detour. The Torah offers a blueprint for life everywhere. It also functions as a constitution for life in Israel with 26 specific, land-based commandments.
The land of Israel then becomes the stage where the Jewish people play out our early narratives and values, rituals and ideas. Archaeological evidence confirms the rich Jewish civilization established: ruins of a once-splendid Jerusalem; villages which did not leave pig bones in their food piles, unlike neighboring settlements; and coins, vessels, scrolls, gems, even an amulet with the priestly prayer traditional Jews use to bless their children every Friday night. Israel is the land of Abraham the believer and Sarah the nurturer, of King David the charmer and King Solomon the thinker, of Deborah the inspirational and Isaiah the ethical.
Israel is the living repository of our first great strides on the world stage. Here, our ancestors developed the subversive idea of one unseen deity, not multiple action figures. Here, they invented the healing notion of a weekly day of rest. Here, they pioneered the religious-ethical ideal of linking serving the Lord with being good to one another. Here, Samuel the prophet taught the powerful King David that no person is above the law, as the countercultural notion of every individual being equal in rights emerged. In short, here the seeds of democracy were first planted, cultivated, and harvested – mocking those who see only contradictions between “Jewish” and “democratic,” overlooking their overlaps.
So we are home. We are staying. True, we were exiled. And many of us spent millennia as wandering Jews, away from our home. But ideas like “exile,” “wandering,” the tradition of turning toward Jerusalem to pray, the anomaly of celebrating agriculture-based holidays in foreign cities, when we prayed for rain in Israel while being drenched or frozen in Russia, all proved our living connection to the land. Jews also always remained in the four Holy Cities of Jerusalem, Hebron, Safed, and Tiberias. We are home. We are staying. We are not going away. The Jewish people were reborn when we reestablished our nation-state, just as so many other countries have in the last 200 years. Israelis are among earth’s happiest, most family-oriented, most community-minded people. Israeli men have the West’s lowest mortality rates, another repudiation of the Palestinian death cult. Even if we didn’t like it here, where we would go? Some Jews have individual ties to other countries, personal escape routes. But collectively? Europe rejected us with genocide. America is not seeking 8 million immigrants. When Amos Oz’s father lived in Vilna, “every wall in Europe said, ‘Jews go home to Palestine.’” Today we’re told “Jews get out of Palestine.” Oz concludes: “A Jewish refuge is just and necessary.”
Israel is not just a “Jewish refuge,” that’s too defensive. Israel is a Jewish opportunity, a Zionist laboratory, a great human adventure. We are writing a glorious new chapter in Jewish history here, in today’s greatest collective Jewish people project. That project’s appeal trumps my disappointment that so many Europeans and academics blindly dismiss any questions about Palestinian nationalism as bigotry, while repudiating Jews’ older ties to Israel and longer national consciousness. The inspiration of the Israel experiment pre-empts any sourness I might develop, if all I did was contemplate the many lives Palestinian terrorists have destroyed. And the nobility of the Zionist vision pushes me to perfect this old-new state on our ancient homeland, to make sure it fulfills the highest Jewish and democratic ideals – in life not with laws — acknowledging the creative tension between those ideas, like many appealing ideas. We respond to Palestinian nihilism with Zionist idealism. We answer Palestinian-imposed death with Jewish –and Israeli — life.
Michal Cotler-Wunsh
Times of Israel, Nov. 19, 2014
When words have no meaning, it does not matter what values parents inculcate into their children from the day that they are born; When words have no meaning, it does not matter what school books teach; When words have no meaning, it does not matter what religious leaders preach; When words have no meaning, it does not matter that a soccer stadium in a sovereign, democratic State is named for a capitol city of a terror sponsoring, enemy State; When words have no meaning, it does not matter that elected political leaders condemn terror attacks by day, and send condolence letters and rewards to the families of the perpetrators by night;
When words have no meaning, an internationally acclaimed news agency reports the brutal murder and injuring of innocent civilians in the ‘safety’ of a house of worship, as an event where ‘4 Israelis and 2 Palestinians died’; When words have no meaning, heinous acts of terror find justification in false allegations that a bus driver found dead was killed, when in fact, when words have no meaning, it does not matter that a Palestinian coroner concluded in his report that the cause of death was suicide; When words have no meaning, nobody can be held accountable for what they said, or for what they did not say.
Growing up, I was taught that ‘the Holocaust did not begin in the gas chambers, it began with words’. That powerful message resonates poignantly at a time of ‘moral ambiguity’ in which words seem to have no meaning. At a time that the very institutions founded to protect the world from what began with words, utilize the terms developed to safeguard us all irresponsibly – systematically ignoring human rights violations of terror sponsoring member states, thereby exposing the vulnerability of these institutions and allowing them to be manipulated by the very forces that they were established to protect from.
Growing up, I was also armed with the understanding that ‘bad things happen when too many good people do nothing’.
As time passes, understanding the profound significance of words, coupled with the tremendous responsibility of not standing idly by when words are unaccountably expressed, it seems that knowledge is a necessary tool and very possibly the only way to address these challenges. It is unquestionable that knowledge is power to the individual possessing it. This view places the onus on the individual to seek knowledge and empower themselves, that is certain. But beyond that power, there is another layer of responsibility. In order to fulfill the obligation of acting and not standing idly by, we must influence our surroundings – whatever they might be – in order to further the impact, by disseminating the knowledge that we have acquired.
It is thus the role of each of us to gather the facts, process them and draw our own independent conclusions. At a time that words have no meaning, the burden becomes even greater and the responsibility even more substantial. It is up to each and every one of US, in our personal, professional and extended circles, to ensure that the knowledge we gather is disseminated in accurate and transparent ways. From time immemorial we have witnessed and endured the horrific results of attributing no meaning to words and no responsibility to those that utter them. The overwhelming power of words and the reverberating influence that they have must be acknowledged. This supposition implicates each and every one of us.
A final, personal thought. My teacher, the individual responsible for shaping my understanding that if we are to heal a broken world, words MUST have meaning and that those who utter them MUST be held to account, is Prof. Irwin Cotler, my father. Having dedicated his entire life to that notion, committed to the awesome responsibility of upholding the values of justice and the law, he has been heralded time and again for his many achievements. Most recently, he was awarded the honor of Maclean’s 2014 Canadian Parliamentarian of the Year on the very day of the heinous act of terror in Jerusalem. In a valiant attempt to protect all that he believes in and has been recognized for, my role model filled me with optimism and hope on a dark and sad day.
Seizing the opportunity and exercising the responsibility to speak in Canadian Parliament, he challenged us all to re-attribute meaning to words – ALL words – including those of incitement to hatred and violence. He challenged us all to hold individuals – ALL individuals – accountable for uttering words of incitement, glorification of terror, justification of killing and celebration of murder. The abysmal prospect that words have no meaning and that there is no accountability of those who utter them, has had horrific results, world-over. From an unthinkable attack on the very same Canadian Parliament just weeks ago, to a brutal terror attack on the very same day in which a 3 month old baby was murdered in Jerusalem, to filmed beheadings of innocents by terrorists committed to destroying all that represents freedom and democracy.
The Canadian parliament rose to a unanimous standing ovation in response to the call to action, demanding we ensure that words have meaning and that those that utter them be held accountable. It is time that we all rise to the challenge. It is time that we attribute meaning back to words. It is time that we hold those that utter words of incitement to hate and glorification of terror, day or night, to account. It is time that we each empower ourselves with the necessary facts, circulate them and speak up clearly. It is time that we affirm that there is NO excuse for terror and there is NO way to avert responsibility by those that incite, promote and encourage it, whether by speaking for it or by not speaking up against it, in a loud and clear voice that leaves NO room for moral ambiguity. It is time to assert that words DO in fact have meaning and that those that utter them ARE accountable.
CIJR Wishes All Our Friends and Supporters: Shabbat Shalom!
The Bloody Effects of Antisemitism: Rafael Barak, National Post, Nov. 24, 2014—Last Tuesday’s terror attack at a Jerusalem synagogue, which killed four innocent men and one police officer, was a serious blow to all Israelis.
Abbas and Fatah Show Their True Colors… in Arabic: Rachel Bresinger, Jerusalem Post, Nov. 17, 2014—For years it has been known by many within Israeli society that there is a great disparity between what the Palestinian leadership headed by Mahmoud Abbas says in English to the Western World and what they say to the Palestinian people and Muslim world in Arabic.
The “Status Quo” on the Temple Mount: Nadav Shragai, JCPA, Nov. 13, 2014—The status of the Temple Mount and the “status quo” practiced there has in recent months figured prominently in the religious-political discourse in the region.
Outremont Sukkah Battle is the Latest Case of Harassment of Hasidim: Leila Marshy, Montreal Gazette, Nov. 19, 2014—In 2011, Outremont councillor Céline Forget lobbied to block the renovation of a Mile End synagogue.
Contents:
Visit CIJR’s Bi-Weekly Webzine: Israzine.
CIJR’s ISRANET Daily Briefing is available by e-mail.
Please urge colleagues, friends, and family to visit our website for more information on our ISRANET series.
To join our distribution list, or to unsubscribe, visit us at https://isranet.org/.
The ISRANET Daily Briefing is a service of CIJR. We hope that you find it useful and that you will support it and our pro-Israel educational work by forwarding a minimum $90.00 tax-deductible contribution [please send a cheque or VISA/MasterCard information to CIJR (see cover page for address)]. All donations include a membership-subscription to our respected quarterly ISRAFAX print magazine, which will be mailed to your home.
CIJR’s ISRANET Daily Briefing attempts to convey a wide variety of opinions on Israel, the Middle East and the Jewish world for its readers’ educational and research purposes. Reprinted articles and documents express the opinions of their authors, and do not necessarily reflect the viewpoint of the Canadian Institute for Jewish Research.
Rob Coles, Publications Chairman, Canadian Institute for Jewish Research/ L'institut Canadien de recherches sur le Judaïsme, www.isranet.org
Tel: (514) 486-5544 – Fax:(514) 486-8284 ; ber@isranet.wpsitie.com
