10 Nov

Beware of the Palestinian “Trojan Horse”


Categories: in American Jewish Issues, Anti-Semitism, Contrarian wisdom, Current Events, Holocaust Related Issues, Interfaith Dialogue, Israel, Jewish History, Obama's Failed Middle East Policies, Political Commentaries, The Future of Judaism

If a picture is worth more than a thousand words, then take heart! All of my liberal friends, you tend to see the world through rose-colored classes. Check this out . . . .

Please share with a friend.

Ask yourself a simple question: Would you buy a used car from this guy? Abbas is no different than his master Arafat. The only difference: Abbas wears a suit and “looks” civilized. When Arafat spoke about the “peace of the brave,” he really meant, “the peace of the grave.”

Should we be surprised? Not really. Weren’t the Oslo Accords based upon the principle of “mutual recognition”? Inspired by the atavistic theology of the Koran, the PLO is proud to emulate the duplicity of Mohammed, who made peace with the more powerful cities of Mecca and Medina-only to later attack these cities when the first opportunity presented itself.

On May 10th, 1994 while visiting Johannesburg, South Africa, Arafat proudly defended his move to “make peace” with Israel by saying, “I see this agreement as being no more than the agreement signed between our Prophet Muhammad and the Quraysh in Mecca.”

Well, for those of you unfamiliar with what happened in Quraysh, heads were literally rolling in the streets, and the streets were drenched with blood . . . this is the legacy Arafat and Abbas wish to re-actualize in our day.

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Western countries tend to see what they want—or better yet—hope to see. Since the time of the Enlightenment, most of the great European philosophers view human nature in fairly optimistic terms and see human societies as evolving toward a more advanced stage of human civilization.

With the advent of modern genocide, the wholesale destruction of indigenous peoples across the world has shown repeatedly that our belief in human advancement has been misplaced. We, as a modern society, tend to ignore the atavistic side of human nature. Jews especially, because of the Holocaust, seriously want—better yet—hope that the world has learned its lessons, but has it?

This year, November 9th marks the 73rd anniversary when the Nazis organized a national pogrom on November 9th, 1939. But has the world really learned its lessons? Even if we want to believe that the Europeans have indeed evolved, what about the Muslim societies, which continue depicting the Jew in the vilest imagery we have seen since the 1930s?

When Mahmoud Abbas announces a “Jew Free Palestine,” using Hitler-esque Judenrein language, he is not referring to just the West Bank—he means all of Israel.

As Jews, we want to believe that Palestinians really wish to live in peace, but do they really? One of the most important architects of the Oslo Accords was a man named Faisal Husseini, who was often considered to be a “moderate voice of peace” in the Palestinian community.

On his way to Kuwait, where he died of a heart attack in May, Husseini gave his last interview to the Egyptian daily “Al-Arabi.” Following are excerpts from the interview, published on June 24, 2001.

Playing on the idealism of the Enlightenment, Husseini—like a master chess player—laid out a strategy that the Palestinian Authority is following, with methodical perfection. Husseini regarded the Oslo Accords as a “Palestinian Trojan Horse.”

In a speech in Beirut in April 2001, Husseini develops this theme: [note that Word Press does not have indentation features, so I had to use bullets instead for spacing]

  • The [ancient] Greek Army was unable to break into Troy due to [internal] disputes and disagreements [among themselves]. The Greek forces started retreating one after the other, and the Greek king ended up facing the walls of Troy all by himself, and he too suffered from illnesses and [internal] disputes, and ended up leading a failed assault on Troy’s walls. [Following these events] the people of Troy climbed on top of the walls of their city and could not find any traces of the Greek army, except for a giant wooden horse. They cheered and celebrated thinking that the Greek troops were routed, and while retreating left a harmless wooden horse as spoils of war. So they opened the gates of the city and brought in the wooden horse. We all know what happened next.
  • Had the U.S. and Israel not realized, before Oslo, that all that was left of the Palestinian National movement and the Pan-Arab movement was a wooden horse called Arafat or the PLO, they would never have opened their fortified gates and let it inside their walls. Despite the fact that we entered these walls in order to build, unlike the Greeks who entered them in order to destroy, I now tell you all, all these to whom I spoke in a secret meeting during the days of Oslo: “Climb into the horse and don’t question what type of material the horse is made of. Climb into the horse, and we shall transform your climbing into that horse into a beginning of a building era, rather than an era of the end of hope.”
  • And indeed, there are those who climbed onto the horse and are [now] inside [the PA territory] whether they supported the Oslo Accords or not . . . I told everyone: three years ago I said, “climb into the horse,” and everyone entered into the horse and the horse entered into the walled-in [area]. Now, the time has come for us to say: “Come out of the horse and start working. Don’t stay inside the horse and don’t waste time and energy while you are inside the horse arguing whether this was a good horse or not. Look, it is thanks to this horse that you were able to get into the walled-in city.”
  • So come down out of the horse and start working for the goal for which you entered the horse to begin with. In my opinion, the Intifada itself is the coming down out of the horse. Rather than getting into the old arguments… this effort [the Intifada] could have been much better, broader, and more significant had we made it clearer to ourselves that the Oslo agreement, or any other agreement, is just a temporary procedure, or just a step towards something bigger…If you are asking me as a Pan-Arab nationalist what are the Palestinian borders according to the higher strategy, I will immediately reply: “from the river to the sea.” [1]
  • …the Oslo agreement, or any other agreement, is just a temporary procedure, or just a step towards something bigger…Faisal Husseini

The moral of the story ought to be painfully clear: you cannot make peace with a government that cynically uses peace as a ruse for war. If the State of Israel has not yet mastered this basic lesson in Darwinian survival, then I fear that we may be witnessing the last vestige of Jewish Independence since the 2nd century. I pray that our leaders recognize the ground facts—beware of letting your guard down. Let us not repeat the mistakes of our history—for our sake, and the sake of the civilized world. Continue Reading

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10 Nov

Just Who’s inside the ‘Big Tent?’


Categories: in American Jewish Issues, Anti-Semitism, Askarabbi, Contrarian wisdom, Current Events, Jewish History, judaism, The Future of Judaism

Tonight’s blog is a combination of local Jewish politics, linguistics, and a garden variety of mishmash. If the material sounds rambled, please forgive me. Writing helps me process conflicting emotions; it’s very good for finding clarity and peace of mind.

It is ironic in a sense. I could not help not notice the new NY Jewish Week’s article on: “Who’s inside the ‘Big Tent?’ It happens to be the theme for the upcoming Jewish Federation Conference in Denver.

The “Big Tent” is a lovely metaphor that suggests inclusive Jewish communities working together. I wonder why the JFC decided upon this theme. Were they concerned that they needed to reach out to all Jewish communities, but perhaps had failed to do so? Do the Jewish Federations across the country already feel they have reached this goal for the most part? If it is the latter, I dare say they are suffering from hubris.

Well, if the local Jewish Federation of San Diego is any realistic indicator, I must say JFSD has failed miserably. Furthermore, it perpetuates the mythos of factionalism,[1] which has arguably been the “Original Sin” of Jewish tradition, since the time of the Second Temple.

Without intending to be disrespectful, I must admit that the “Big Tent,” and Jewish Federations sounds like an oxymoron. I am, of course, basing my observations upon the San Diego Jewish Federation, which recently sent me a solicitation for their organization, which I politely refused.

I wanted the local president of the Jewish Federation to understand why we as a synagogue decided not to give anything to the Federation. The San Diego Jewish Federation does not believe in the “Big Tent” ideal at all; instead, it perpetuates a doctrine of favoritism—for all the local and wealthy congregations.

When our board members met with Steve Morris, the local president of the JFSD, we pointed out a variety of reasons why we have no interest in supporting the Jewish Federation or the La Jolla JCSD. After meeting with him, some of us felt that the La Jolla JCC is really an acronym for the “La Jolla Jewish Country Club” since there is nothing communitarian about its philosophy. As most of you know, country clubs appeal solely to people of financial means and as such, generally have a closed membership.

President Steve Morris honestly informed our board that he has met with many other Jewish communities in the surrounding area and to his surprise, they too felt that their communities were being ignored and marginalized. If I were on the Jewish Federation board, I would seriously ask myself: Why does this common perception persists?

It is a pity that the local Jewish leaders think solely in terms of the bottom line; favoring the strong over the small and struggling congregations is a disturbing reality that needs to be acknowledged. In our day, the Occupy Wall Street consortium applies not only to the economic institutions of our society; in some ways it also applies to the religious organizations that claim to be concerned with the welfare of Jewish posterity. We can and must do better . . .

 

One last thought:

In Biblical Hebrew, the term for זָר (zār ) “stranger” or “enemy,” often has a negative connotation pertaining to anyone who is on the “outside” and the noun is related to the noun, זֵר (zēr) “border,” or “edge”—perhaps because the stranger is always standing at the edge. This is a most intriguing etymology worthy of serious reflection.

C.G. Jung observed how etymology represents the unconscious side of human language. I believe he was absolutely on target. As human beings evolved, our ancestors tended to think of their own families in different terms from other family clans. Despite tens of thousands of years of human evolution, we still tend to divide the human family into “insiders,” vs. “outsiders.” Nothing much has really changed. In many ways, we remain as primitive and psychologically backward when it comes to our perception of the Other. Somehow, I think God expects more from us as Jews. We must transcend the parochial vision of our ancestors.

The concept of the “Big Tent,” is a great idea, but like all great ideas, it needs to be embodied as a reality. Continue Reading

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