Zionists Out of the Peace Movement

Here are two online versions of a "joke" I recently learned about from a book by Harvey Cox:

So the Hebrew school teacher asks little Johnny: "What is the meaning of most Jewish holidays?" Replies little Johnny: "They tried to kill us. We won. Let's eat." Little Johnny had a point.

--"The Horseradish Chronicles: The Pain of chrain" by
Michael Arnold Glueck in the Jewish World Review.

"They tried to kill us, we won, let's eat": so goes the world's shortest summary of Jewish holiday themes that circulated recently on the Internet.

--"Eat, Drink, and Be Merry...and Share the Wealth" by Josh Eagle,
Yosef Abramowitz, and Rabbi Susan P. Fendrick in SocialAction.com

The Jewish holidays of Purim, Passover, and Hanukkah are part of the "culture of death" and "victimization" that permeates Judaism and much of modern Jewish life, as noted by Idith Zertal in Israel's Holocaust and the Politics of Nationhood (Cambridge UP, 2005; pp. 1-2). On the penultimate page of her book, in reference to the assassination of PM Yitzhak Rabin by an Israeli Jew, Zertal identifies aspects of Jewish Israeli society: "the nationalist fanaticism, the messianic belief in a borderless Greater Israel, the practices of power and violence, and the rituals of blood, victimhood, and the Holocaust ... " Nearly every aspect of this culture of death, which Zertal identifies, is rooted--one way or another--in Judaism but for present purposes I'll focus on the holidays.

In the cases of Purim and Hanukkah, it would be more accurate to say, "We killed them. Let's eat;" whether "They tried to kill us" is debatable. Purim is based on the biblical book of Esther and the story is told entirely from the perspective of the victors. The author tells us that no Jews died but they did strike "down all their enemies with the sword, slaughtering, and destroying them, and did as they pleased to those who hated them" (Esther 9:5).^* After killing more than 75,000 people, the killers celebrated days of "gladness and feasting" (Esther 9).

The Maccabean civil war at the root of Hanukkah started when Mattathias, a priest and father of Judah Maccabee, killed another Jew for coming "forward in the sight of all to offer sacrifice" to Greek gods. According to I Maccabees 2:

When Mattathias saw it, he burned with zeal and his heart was stirred. He gave vent to righteous anger; he ran and killed him on the altar. At the same time he killed the king's officer who was forcing them to sacrifice, and he tore down the altar.

One of the other things that pissed Mattathias off was the king's decree banning the practice of male genital mutilation known as circumcision.

Of course, the joke would also have to be modified for the Passover story: "Our Lord, Jehovah, killed them. Let's eat." The Exodus narrative does not claim that "They tried to kill us;" it says:

Then the LORD said, "I have observed the misery of my people who are in Egypt; I have heard their cry on account of their taskmasters. Indeed, I know their sufferings, and I have come down to deliver them from the Egyptians, and to bring them up out of that land to a good and broad land, a land flowing with milk and honey, to the country of the Canaanites, the Hittites, the Amorites, the Perizzites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites. The cry of the Israelites has now come to me; I have also seen how the Egyptians oppress them. (Exodus 3:7-9).

It is commonly believed that the Israelites were slaves in Egypt (the related notion that the Egyptian pyramids were built by slaves has come under serious scholarly criticism). In any case, Exodus indicates that the Israelites routinely made slaves of one another (Exodus 21). And soon after exiting Egypt they were longing for the good old days when they served the Egyptians and had meat and their fill of bread (Exodus 14:11,12; 16:3).

The rabble among them had a strong craving; and the Israelites also wept again, and said, "If only we had meat to eat! We remember the fish we used to eat in Egypt for nothing, the cucumbers, the melons, the leeks, the onions, and the garlic; but now our strength is dried up, and there is nothing at all but this manna to look at." (Numbers 11:4-6)

Even the holiest day of the Jewish liturgical year--Yom Kippur or the Day of Atonement--has a bit of the stench of death about it. Flavius Josephus, in his Antiquities of the Jews (3.10) describes the ritual sacrifice conducted in the Temple in Jerusalem:

But on the seventh month, which the Macedonians call Hyperberetaeus, they make an addition to those already mentioned, and sacrifice a bull, a ram, and seven lambs, and a kid of the goats, for sins.

On the tenth day of the same lunar month, they fast till the evening; and this day they sacrifice a bull, and two rams, and seven lambs, and a kid of the goats, for sins. And, besides these, they bring two kids of the goats; the one of which is sent alive out of the limits of the camp into the wilderness for the scapegoat, and to be an expiation for the sins of the whole multitude; but the other is brought into a place of great cleanness, within the limits of the camp, and is there burnt, with its skin, without any sort of cleansing. With this goat was burnt a bull, not brought by the people, but by the high priest, at his own charges; which, when it was slain, he brought of the blood into the holy place, together with the blood of the kid of the goats, and sprinkled the ceiling with his finger seven times, as also its pavement, and again as often toward the most holy place, and about the golden altar: he also at last brings it into the open court, and sprinkles it about the great altar. Besides this, they set the extremities, and the kidneys, and the fat, with the lobe of the liver, upon the altar. The high priest likewise presents a ram to God as a burnt-offering.

Of course, animal sacrifice is not today part of Yom Kippur, except for those orthodox Jews who sacrifice a chicken as part of Kaparot.

Last year's Israeli slaughter in Lebanon and the ongoing war against Palestinians are natural expressions of a Judaic culture of death.

Note
^* All Biblical text is from the New Revised Standard Version via The Unbound Bible.

See also:

• "Response to M."
•  "We love death": Projecting the American Culture of Death onto Islam

Labels: Hanukkah, Jewish violence, Judaism, Passover

The blogger M. raised some interesting questions in a comment to my post on "Judaism's Culture of Death." I reply below.

Dear M.

Thanks for your thoughtful comment. The point of my post was to help illuminate some of the important links between Judaism and Zionism. The culture of death in mainstream Judaism (but which does not characterize the full depth, breadth, or potential of Judaism) as it is practiced today is the same culture of death that energizes Zionism and its violence. My purpose is the same as the prophets who railed against injustice and violence--to stop the injustice and violence! Here's one of my favorite passages from Isaiah:

The prophecies of Isaiah son of Amoz, who prophesied concerning Judah and Jerusalem ...

Hear, O heavens, and give ear, O earth,
For the LORD has spoken:
"I reared children and brought them up--
And they have rebelled against Me!
An ox knows its owner,
An ass its master's crib:
Israel does not know,
My people takes no thought."

Ah, sinful nation!
People laden with iniquity!
Brood of evildoers!
Depraved children!
They have forsaken the LORD,
Spurned the Holy One of Israel,
Turned their backs [on Him].

... Trample My courts no more;
Bringing oblations is futile,
Incense is offensive to Me.
New moon and sabbath,
Proclaiming of solemnities,
Assemblies with iniquity,
I cannot abide.
Your new moons and fixed seasons
Fill Me with loathing;
They are become a burden to Me,
I cannot endure them.
And when you lift up your hands,
I will turn My eyes from you;
Though you pray at length,
I will not listen.
Your hands are full of blood

Source: Isaiah 1:1a, 1:2-4, 1:12b-15; see note 2 to Word to Chuck W. on the translation of this text.

It is a commonplace that modern political Zionism was founded by secular Jews but that is not the whole truth. Even Theodor Herzl, in his Zionist manifesto, The Jewish State, had a definite, positive role for rabbis--"on whom we especially call"--and synagogue in the movement. Herzl argued that Jews "feel our historic affinity only through the faith of our fathers" and the Jewish "Faith unites us." The influential Moses Hess, in "Rome and Jerusalem," wrote of the Zionist movement: We will "draw our inspiration from the deep well of Judaism."

To turn to a more contemporary source, in Jewish History, Jewish Religion: The Weight of Three Thousand Years, the late Israel Shahak writes:

The ideological defence of Israeli policies are usually based on Jewish religious beliefs or, in the case of secular Jews, on the "historical rights" of the Jews which derive from those beliefs and retain the dogmatic character of religious faith.

... close analysis of Israeli grand strategies and actual principles of foreign policy, as they are expressed in Hebrew, makes it clear that it is "Jewish ideology," more than any other factor, which determines actual Israeli policies. The disregard of Judaism as it really is and of "Jewish ideology" makes those policies incomprehensible to foreign observers who usually know nothing about Judaism except crude apologetics.

The existence of an important component of Israeli policy, which is based on "Jewish ideology," makes its analysis politically imperative. This ideology is, in turn based on the attitudes of historic Judaism to non-Jews, ... Those attitudes necessarily influence many Jews, consciously or unconsciously. Our task here is to discuss historic Judaism in real terms.

Although the struggle against antisemitism (and of all other forms of racism) should never cease, the struggle against Jewish chauvinism and exclusivism, which must include a critique of classical Judaism, is now of equal or greater importance [emphasis added].

Like Shahak, I am interested in going beyond "crude apologetics" to discuss the influence, conscious and unconscious, of Judaism on Jews and non-Jews. I cannot help but think the celebrations of death-victory at the heart of some Jewish holidays, esp. Purim and Passover, have deleterious effects in the world today. I know I'm not alone, in my "Reflection On Passover," I quote Aaron J. Tapper and Jacob Pinnolis who have wrestled with violence in the Jewish tradition. In "3 "Ex-Terrorists"; UM Cops Suppress Free Speech Again (Part 1)" I cited Elliott Horowitz and his book, Reckless Rites: Purim and the Legacy of Jewish Violence.

You asked about my choice of images to illustrate the post. The article is about a culture of death, hence my choice of the Grim Reaper. You wrote, "you claim that the 'real story' behind many of the major jewish holidays is one of death and murder." I encourage you to examine the narratives behind those holidays on your own. A common joke about those holidays was my point of departure and my claim is that the underlying narratives are not congruent with the joke or the common interpretation of those holidays as simple, noble struggles for liberation and, further, that these holidays actually are part of the "culture of death" and victimhood identified by Idith Zertal. Although, as I hope I have made clear, my use of those concepts expands upon Zertal's use.

As for Yom Kippur, I think the main thrust of my argument remains intact without it. Its inclusion as part of a culture of death could be easily defended, I think, but I am also open to treating it sui generis. In short, I don't think it should be a stumbling-block to grappling with the broader issue raised.

You wrote, "you include a quote from numbers to claim that the jews didn't really appreciate being freed from slavery ..." The point was that the biblical Passover story is far from being a case of "They tried to kill us." If that added information "further discredit[s] the story of passover" then I'm totally fine with that. The only way--and it's a stretch at that--I can see to salvage Passover is to change it to an Exodus holiday and to eliminate or repudiate the Passover i.e. the divine slaying of the Egyptian first-born by the Destroyer. But, hey, that's not up to me but I will critique it as it is. By the way, my interpretation of the text from Numbers and the related verses from Exodus is the mainstream Jewish reading.

You talked about "other cultures within judaism." It's fine to talk about those and there is no shortage of people willing to promote (often dishonestly, e.g. the Zionist Michael Lerner) them. However, the truly progressive expressions of Judaism are by no means representative of, or grounded in, mainstream Judaism. To focus on them is to "disregard ... Judaism as it really is" and to fail to go beyond "crude apologetics," to quote Shahak.

In closing, I'll take a whack at the much-hyped tikkun olam. Steve Bhaerman is typical when he tells us "the heart essence of Judaism" is "Tikkun Olam-- the healing of the world." Now, you would think that the "heart essence of Judaism" would merit some explicit mention in the Tanakh (Christians usually call it the Old Testament)--it apparently doesn't. Tikkun olam doesn't even merit its own entry in the 12-volume Jewish Encyclopedia (1906). So far as I know, the concept appears in only one chapter in the Mishna.

Its source, in reference to repairing a broken world, is in the Lurianic Cabbala, named after Isaac Luria, who lived in the Middle Ages. According to Lawrence Fine ("Tikkun Olam in Contemporary Jewish Thought"), the first evidence of its migration from Hasidic mysticism to liberal Jewish American thought comes not until the 1950s.

Here's a quote from Israel Shahak and Norton Mezvinsky (Jewish Fundamentalism in Israel, 2004, p. 58) on Cabbala and Luria:

Yesaiah Tishbi, an authority on the Cabbala who wrote in Hebrew, explained in his scholarly work, The Theory of Evil and the (Satanic) Sphere in Lurianic Cabbala (1942, reprinted in 1982): "It is plain that those prospects and the scheme [of salvation] are intended only for Jews." Tishbi cited Rabbi Hayim Vital, the chief interpreter of Rabbi Luria, who wrote in his book, Gates of Holiness: "The Emanating Power, blessed be his name, wanted there to be some people on this low earth that would embody the four divine emanations. These people are the Jews, chosen to join together the four divine worlds here below." Tishbi further cited Vital's writings in emphasizing the Lurianic doctrine that non-Jews have satanic souls: "Souls of non-Jews come entirely from the female part of the satanic sphere. For this reason souls of non-Jews are called evil, not good, and are created without [divine] knowledge." In his illuminating Hebrew-language book, Rabbinate, Hassidism, Enlightenment: The History of Jewish Culture Between the End of the Sixteenth and the Beginning of the Nineteenth Century (1956), Ben-Zion Katz explained convincingly that the above doctrines became part of Hassidism. Accurate descriptions of Lurianic doctrines and their wide influence upon religious Jews can be found in numerous other studies, written in Hebrew. In books and articles written in other languages, and thus read by most interested non-Israeli Jews and non-Jews, such descriptions and analyses are most often absent. The role of Satan, whose earthly embodiment according to the Cabbala is every non-Jew, has been minimized or not mentioned by authors who have not written about the Cabbala in Hebrew. Such authors, therefore, have not conveyed to readers accurate accounts of general [National Religious Party] or its hard-core, Gush Emunim politics.

So, it is quite conceivable that tikkun olam, in its original Lurianic sense, referred to a world where Jews ruled and everyone else obeyed, if they existed at all. Now, I'm in favor of appropriating and reinterpreting things as much as the next person but let's be honest about the very negative aspects of "classical Judaism" and knock off the "the heart essence of Judaism" nonsense.

See also:

• "Another Response to M."
•  "The Rise Of Tikkun Olam Paganism" by Steven Plaut for a Right-wing, Israeli perspective on the subject of liberal Jewish appropriation of the concept.

Labels: Israel, Jewish supremacism, Jewish violence, Judaism, Passover, tikkun olam, Zionism

On March 6, 2008, 26-year-old Alaa Abu Dhein carried out an armed attack on the Mercaz Harav Yeshiva. That same day, the Jerusalem Post accurately characterized this attack on "the flagship institution of the religious Zionist movement" as an "assault on the heart of Zionism."

Less than three weeks later, in another article from the Jerusalem Post, the chief rabbi of the Galilean city of Safed nicely brings together many of the ideas variously addressed in this blog regarding Judaism's culture of death. Safed was violently ethnically cleansed by Jews of Arabs in 1948. Here's an excerpt from the JPost article:

Safed Chief Rabbi Shmuel Eliahu called on the state to use brute force as a deterrent to future terror attacks, following the shooting at the capital's Mercaz Harav Yeshiva three weeks ago that killed eight students.

"A state that really respects the lives of its citizens would have hanged the 10 sons of the terrorist on a tree 50 amot [25 meters] tall, so that others would see it and be afraid," wrote Eliahu, referring figuratively to the Book of Esther's depiction of how the Jews of ancient Persia took revenge against Haman and his 10 sons.

PM: This "revenge" is celebrated in the Purim holiday and, according to the book of Esther, Jews killed more than 75,000 Persians.

Eliahu's comments will appear this weekend in a Hebrew-language pamphlet called "Eretz Yisrael Shelanu" [The Land of Israel Belongs to Us] that is distributed in thousands of synagogues across the nation.

"I am not talking about individuals," stipulated Eliahu. "I am talking about the State of Israel, which needs to make them hurt until they scream, 'Enough!' - until they lie sprawled on the ground groveling, 'Help us!'...

"We have to exact a revenge that is so painful, it will burn into their souls the message of all our enemies that Jewish blood is more valuable than gold and platinum."

Eliahu stressed that the aim of the revenge was solely to achieve deterrence. He added that the Torah's prohibitions against revenge referred solely to individuals, not to states.

"On the national level, "revenge is necessary. Every state that is attacked takes revenge. The US, Russia, Turkey and India, all European states and even Third World countries take revenge. Does the entire world have it wrong and only the Israeli Left have it right? The Israeli Left is tired. It has lost its will to live. We have to remove those tired leftists from political leadership and send them to the old age home, and choose leaders who know true morality," Eliahu continued.

On the attack at the Mercaz Harav Yeshiva, see:

• "At War With 'God' " by Hesham Tillawi
• "A defeated policy, not a defeated people" by Ali Abunimah
• "Soldiers (not innocent students) killed at settler center" by Khalid Amayreh
• "Chief Rabbi-for-War Metzger in News Again"

Labels: Israel, Jewish violence, Judaism, Palestine, Zionism

Click here for a gallery of Gaza images.

About a year-and-a-half ago I wrote:

The Jewish holidays of Purim, Passover, and Hanukkah are part of the "culture of death" and "victimization" that permeates Judaism and much of modern Jewish life, as noted by Idith Zertal in Israel's Holocaust and the Politics of Nationhood (2005; pp. 1-2). ... The Maccabean civil war at the root of Hanukkah started when Mattathias, a priest and father of Judah Maccabee, killed another Jew [sic] for coming "forward in the sight of all to offer sacrifice" to Greek gods. According to I Maccabees 2:

When Mattathias saw it, he burned with zeal and his heart was stirred. He gave vent to righteous anger; he ran and killed him on the altar. At the same time he killed the king's officer who was forcing them to sacrifice, and he tore down the altar.

I concluded that post by noting, "Last year's Israeli slaughter in Lebanon and the ongoing war against Palestinians are natural expressions of a Judaic culture of death." The recent murderous onslaught against Palestinians in Gaza by the Jewish state only confirms this. As the pro-Israel Matzav.com reports:

Israel has given its Gaza assault the codename "Operation Cast Lead." Where did this rather poetic title come from? Most people don't know that it actually comes from a poem. Specifically, a Chanukah poem by Israel's national poet, H.N. Bialik. The operation began on Shabbos, the sixth day of Chanukah. According to Eli Isaacson, a spokesman for the IDF, the codename comes from a line in "For Chanukah" referring to "a dreidel cast of solid lead."

The Jewish Telegraphic Agency simply notes: "The name of the operation, Cast Lead, is a Chanukah reference: The dreidel originally was manufactured by pouring molten lead into a mold. It has a double meaning, because that is how bullets are manufactured."


See also:

• "Hanukkah Games in Gaza" in the Palestine Chronicle
• "Why Israel Named Its Gaza War After a Hanukkah Poem" by Ethan Perlson
• "Shtulman, Jewish Federation on the Hanukkah Massacre"
• "Readers Respond to 'Israel's Hanukkah Massacre & Judaism's Culture of Death'"
• "95% of Israeli Jews Support Hanukkah Massacre"

Labels: Hanukkah, Israel, Jewish violence, Judaism, Palestine, Zionism

Sometime after I posted them on this blog, those Zionist Orwellians (but I repeat myself) at Beth Israel Congregation (BIC) sent two incriminating photos "down the memory hole". The two photos showed a child and an adult posing in front of an Israeli Occupation Forces (IOF) armored vehicle while on BIC's triumphalist tour of occupied Palestine this summer. Not unexpectedly, these photos are now missing from BIC's online photo gallery.

Well, Winston, you missed one. Below is a screen shot showing an even more incriminating (and heartwrenching) photo from part one of their trip photo album and below that is the same photo alone. The child in the center foreground--clothed in red and wearing a white ball cap--is the same child who posed in front of the Israeli armored vehicle, apparently, pointing an imaginary gun. This time he is with an entire group of young children and they are posed in front of a group of armed Israeli soldiers. Weapons are visible on the right sides of the kneeling soldier and the soldier standing second from the left. Rifle shoulder straps are visible on at least three of the other soldiers.



This is what Rabbi Dobrusin and the other leaders at BIC think is appropriate for young children to do on their summer vacation. Here's part of what Dobrusin wrote about the trip:

Through it all, there was the sense that what we were seeing and what we were experiencing had not only a historical dimension but a spiritual dimension as well. ... And through it all, there were the kids. Our group included more than a dozen children who played and sang and hiked and swam their way through Israel, building a stronger connection with the land and laying the foundation for future high school or college trips to deepen their connection with Israel further.

Nice little Jewish girls and boys aren't born as monsters, they are turned into monsters by their parents and rabbis, who inculcate in them Judaism's culture of death. Posing children in front of soldiers and their war machines is only part of this process of indoctrination--Jewish holidays such as Passover help make the deaths of others holy, justified, and, in the case of Purim, fun. Of course, not every Jewish child emerges from this process ready to slaughter or cheer on the slaughter of hundreds of people--as Israel did, indiscriminately, in Lebanon just last year--but far too many do.

See also: "Summer Camp Teaches U.S. Teens To Fight Israeli Style" by Chris Hedges on Alternet

Labels: Beth Israel, Israel, Jewish violence, Judaism

One of my beloved anonymous Zionist readers sent me an LGF (no, this doesn't link to LGF) link to several photos of Arab/Muslim children posing with or around weapons. Apparently, in her/his hasbara-addled mind this constitutes some kind of rebuttal to the photos and commentary I posted in "Making Monsters at Beth Israel". I'm not sure if this is a case of the 'they-do-it-too' ploy or the 'they're-more-eviler' manuever. In any case, it's a diversionary fallacy, pure and simple—tu quoque. Now, anonymous commenter, if you're reading then please pay attention because you won't learn this from your comrades on LGF (no, this doesn't link there, either, but it's not the quiz again): You can never justify or excuse the wrong that you or others do by pointing out an equal or worse wrong—imagined or real—of someone else. Any way, below are some more images along the theme of my last two posts, the last being from a Purim celebration.

See also: "Summer Camp Teaches U.S. Teens To Fight Israeli Style" by Chris Hedges

Labels: Israel, Jewish violence

In "Judaism's Culture of Death," I pointed out that the punchline of a well-known Jewish joke about the Jewish holidays would more accurately be rendered as "We killed them. Let's eat." My point was that at the heart of the narratives of Purim, Passover, and Hanukkah are the deaths of many non-Jews and that this culture of death is related to the violence of Zionism.

In my "Response to M.," I quoted the late Israel Shahak:

The existence of an important component of Israeli policy, which is based on "Jewish ideology," makes its analysis politically imperative. This ideology is, in turn based on the attitudes of historic Judaism to non-Jews ... Those attitudes necessarily influence many Jews, consciously or unconsciously. Our task here is to discuss historic Judaism in real terms.

...

Although the struggle against antisemitism (and of all other forms of racism) should never cease, the struggle against Jewish chauvinism and exclusivism, which must include a critique of classical Judaism, is now of equal or greater importance [emphasis added].

Today, I propose to discuss evidence of "Jewish chauvinism and exclusivism" in "classical Judaism" that is much more recent than the narratives of Jewish holidays but which has its roots in those ancient texts and related ideas. This source comes to me from Jewish History, Jewish Religion: The Weight of Three Thousand Years by Israel Shahak. Because I found Shahak's arguments so hard to believe when I first read them about three years ago, I obtained a copy of the actual book discussed below.

According to Rabbi Eliezer Yehuda Waldenberg, Jewish Medical Law (Jerusalem and Anaheim, CA: Gefen, 1980) represents "the essence of the medically pertinent halakhic decisions that are dispersed among the thirteen volumes of my responsa texts entitled Tzitz Eliezer and my other books which the Almighty has graciously assisted me in writing and publishing" (p. vii). Jewish Medical Law (JML) was edited by Avraham Steinberg, M.D. and personally approved by Waldenberg.

Until his death last year, Rabbi Waldenberg was a leading Orthodox authority on halakhah, i.e. Jewish religious law, specializing in medical questions. He was a judge on the Israeli government-sponsored High Rabbinical Court and Rabbi of the Shaare Zedek Medical Center in Jerusalem. In the "Overview" section of JML we learn that "In the field of medicine and halakhah, Rabbi Waldenberg has published more responsa and articles than any other halakhic authority" and he was awarded many honors, including the Israel Prize for Torah literature (pp. 18-19).

So, having established that Rabbi Waldenberg was well within the mainstream of Judaic thought and Israeli society let's see what he has to say about Jewish medical law and how it applies to non-Jews. First, we return to Dr. Steinberg's "Overview" to learn that "It is a mitzvah, namely the physician's Biblical obligation, to heal Jewish patients." The reason for the inclusion of the modifier "Jewish" will become clearer as we go through JML.

The following quotes come from "Part II. The Sabbath" of JML:

[10] It is forbidden to delay the desecration of the Sabbath in instances of danger to life ...

[11] ... the Jewish physician should not refrain from desecrating the Sabbath in such circumstances [when a Jew's life is in danger] (p. 30)

... [18] According to the ruling stated in the Talmud and Codes of Jewish Law, it is forbidden to desecrate the Sabbath--whether violating Biblical or rabbinic law--in order to save the life of a dangerously ill gentile patient. It is also forbidden to deliver the baby of a gentile woman on the Sabbath. (p. 41)

Got that? If you're Jewish and have a life-threatening condition then your Jewish doctor is commanded to violate the Sabbath to care for you but if you're not a Jew then, according to Jewish law, your Jewish doctor is forbidden to care for you on the Sabbath even if your life is in danger.

But wait. "[19] However, today it is permitted to desecrate the Sabbath on behalf of a gentile ..." And, why is that? It's not because non-Jewish lives are of equal value with Jewish lives. Oh, no. The reason stated in the rest of paragraph 19 is "... for by so doing one prevents ill feelings from arising between Jew and gentile." Doc, take care of that sick Gentile on the Sabbath because, well, it's good for the Jews. To amplify this point, I quote from paragraph 21:

In order to avoid any transgression of the law, there is a legally acceptable method of rendering treatment on behalf of a gentile patient even when dealing with violation of Biblical law. It is suggested that at the time that the physician is providing the necessary care, his intentions should not primarily be to cure the patient, but to protect himself and the Jewish people from accusations of religious discrimination and severe retaliation that may endanger him in particular and the Jewish people in general. With this intention, any act on the physician's part becomes "an act whose actual outcome is not its primary purpose" (melakhah sheeinah tzerikhah legufa) ... (pp. 41-42)

There, does that make you Gentiles feel better about your observant Jewish physician? If anyone knows of any parallel to this in the contemporary religious law of other religions then please feel free to apprise me of it.

Some Zionists like to brag about how multicultural/multiethnic Judaism and Israel are. What they don't know or don't speak about is the fact that many non-European Jews are religiously suspect and subject to discrimination in Israel. Concerning Jews from India, Ethiopia, and Portugal, JML says:

[14] It is permitted to desecrate the Sabbath in order to save the life of a member of the sect called B'net Yisrael [or Yehudim Chavashim or Shomrei Shabbath], for they may be Jewish. This applies on the condition that they are Torah and Sabbath observant. If, however, they behave like Karaites and deride Jewish belief, it is forbidden to desecrate the Sabbath on their behalf. (p. 40)

In other words, let 'em suffer or die if they don't meet the religious tests. These, of course, do not apply to non-observant Ashkenazi and Sephardic Jews.

Moving right along, in Part II, Chapter 7 of JML we learn that "Eating kosher food cooked by a gentile was prohibited by rabbinic decree in order to prevent Jews from socializing with their gentile neighbors, thus deterring intermarriage" (p. 61). In the same section, it is explained that if a Gentile cooks for a Jewish patient on the Sabbath then the cooking utensils are tref, i.e. ritually unclean, for 24 hours unless they are immersed in boiling water (pp. 61-62). If a Jew did the food preparation then no immersion or waiting period is required (p. 62).

Now, let's talk money. An "observant physician may not want to accept payment for services rendered on the Sabbath" and he is permitted to decline payment (p. 73). Except, "It is forbidden for a physician to benefit from the Sabbath fee of a gentile patient. He should either destroy the money ... or give it to charity. Under no circumstances should he treat gentile patients for free on the Sabbath" (p. 73).

The focus of this post is on the racism or chauvinism in Judaism but in Part IV, Chapter 1 of JML we learn a bit about sexism in "classical Judaism:"

[1] A woman is forbidden to use contraceptive measures without the consent of her husband.

[2] If the husband has not yet fulfilled the mitzvah of procreation and his wife may not become pregnant because of danger to her health, he should divorce his wife rather than permit her to use contraception. (p. 94)

Part IV, chapter 2 of JML says that abortion is permissible when the pregnancy is life-threatening or just detrimental to the health of the Jewish mother-to-be, or if the Jewish mother-to-be is still nursing another child. Provided, the abortion is carried out within the first three months of pregnancy (pp. 102-104). Certain eugenic abortions, however, are permitted for Jewish women "up to the seventh month of pregnancy" (p. 103).

The only permissible reason for a "gentile woman" to have an abortion is if "there is a life-threatening danger to the mother" (pp. 104-105). In all instances, the "consent of the husband" should be "procure[d]" and a "Jewish physician is preferable to a gentile physician." In 2004, Rabbi Mordechai Halperin, MD, had an article entitled "Termination of Pregnancy: Legal, Moral and Jewish Aspects" published in Jewish Medical Ethics and Halacha, a journal of the Schlesinger Institute for Medical-Halachic Research of the Shaare Zedek Medical Center. Halperin, an editor of the journal and Chief Officer of Medical Ethics at the Israeli Ministry of Health, writes that "the Noahide laws ... apply to gentiles" and "under Noahide law the killing of a fetus is punishable by death ..."

Semen donors and physician who use donated semen "are violating the severe prohibition against masturbation" (p. 106) but "Artificial insemination performed with semen from a gentile donor is a greater desecration of Jewish morality than artificial insemination performed with semen donated by a Jew" (p. 107). In fact, "There exists the possibility that [the use of semen donated by a Gentile] would permanently proscribe sexual relations between husband and wife" (p. 107). A child which results from artificial insemination using semen from a Gentile "is a pagum (literally, blemished)" (p. 108).

So, there you have it: Jewish medical law in all its glory. Now, I don't believe that most American Jewish physicians know about, let alone adhere, to these rules. The point, though, is that these are not ancient, fringe texts. These rules were derived from Torah, in its broadest sense, by a leading, mainstream rabbi in the Jewish state where "Orthodoxy is the only movement that is formally and legally recognized ..." The concern is that, to quote Israel Shahak, these rules reflect "the attitudes of historic Judaism to non-Jews ... Those attitudes necessarily influence many Jews, consciously or unconsciously" and from such racism sprang Zionism.

Last revised: 30 July 2010; repaired dead link and expanded text referring to article by Mordechai Halperin.

Labels: halacha, Jewish violence, Judaism, medicine, Talmud, Zionism

Este artículo que sigue fue traducido de una versión inglesa anterior. Sin embargo, soy ni un locutor nativo ni fluido del español. Me disculpo por cualquier error de la traducción. Las correcciones son agradables.

En la "Judaism's Culture of Death," indiqué que el frase clave de una broma judía bien conocida sobre los días de fiesta judíos sería rendido más exactamente como "Les matamos. Comamos." Mi punto era ése en el corazón de las narrativas de Purim, Pascua, y Januká es las muertes de muchos no judíos y eso esta cultura de la muerte se relaciona con la violencia del sionismo.

En mi "Response to M.," coticé Israel Shahak:

La existencia de un componente importante de la política israelí, que se basa en "ideología judía," hace su imperativo del análisis político. Esta ideología es, alternadamente basado en las actitudes del judaísmo histórico a los no judíos ... Esas actitudes influencian necesariamente a muchos judíos, conscientemente o conscientemente. Nuestra tarea aquí es discutir judaísmo histórico en términos verdaderos. ...

Aunque la lucha contra antisemitism (y de el resto de las formas de racismo) debe nunca cesar, la lucha contra el chauvinism y el exclusivism judíos, que deben incluir una crítica del judaísmo clásico, ahora es de importancia igual o mayor [énfasis agregado].

Hoy, propongo discutir evidencia del "chauvinism y del exclusivism judíos" en el "judaísmo clásico" que es mucho más reciente que las narrativas de días de fiesta judíos pero que tiene sus raíces en esos textos antiguos e ideas relacionadas. Esta fuente viene a mí de la Historia Judía, Religión Judía: El Peso de Tres Mil Años por Israel Shahak. Porque encontré las discusiones de Shahak tan duras creer cuando primero las leí hace aproximadamente tres años, obtuve una copia del libro discutido abajo.

Según el rabino Eliezer Yehuda Waldenberg, Ley Médica Judía (Jerusalén y Anaheim, CA: Gefen, 1980) representa "la esencia de las decisiones halakhic médicamente pertinentes que se dispersan entre los trece volúmenes de mis textos del responsa titulados Tzitz Eliezer y mis otros libros que el Todopoderoso graciosamente me ha asistido en la escritura y publicar" (p. vii). Ley Médica Judía (JML) fue corregida por Avraham Steinberg, M.D. y aprobada personalmente por Waldenberg.

Hasta su muerte el año pasado, el rabino Waldenberg era una autoridad ortodoxa principal en el halakhah, es decir ley religiosa judía, especializándose en preguntas médicas. Él era un juez en la Alta Corte Rabínico del gobierno israelí y rabbi del centro médico de Shaare Zedek en Jerusalén. En la sección de la "descripción" de JML aprendemos que "en la tema de la medicina y del halakhah, rabbi Waldenberg ha publicado más responsa y artículos que cualquier otra autoridad halakhic" y le concedieron muchos honores, incluyendo el Premio de Israel para la literatura de Torah (pp. 18-19).

Así pues, estableciendo que el rabino Waldenberg estaba en conformidad con la corriente principal del pensamiento judaic y la sociedad israelí nos dejó considerar lo que él tiene que decir sobre ley médica judía y cómo se aplica a los no judíos. Primero, volvemos a la "descripción" del Dr. Steinberg para aprender que "es un mitzvah, a saber la obligación bíblica del médico, de curar a pacientes judíos." La razón de la inclusión del modificante "judío" llegará a estar más clara como pasamos con JML.

Las cotizaciones siguientes vienen de la "Parte II. El Sábado" de JML:

[ 10 ] Se prohíbe a retrasa el profanación del sábado en casos del peligro a la vida ...

[ 11 ] ... el médico judío no debe refrenarse de profanar el sábado en tales circunstancias [cuando la vida de un judío está en el peligro] (p. 30)

... [ 18 ] según la decisión indicó en el Talmud y los códigos de la ley judía, se prohíbe profanar el sábado--si viola ley bíblica o rabínico--para salvar la vida de un paciente gentilicio peligroso enfermo. También se prohíbe asistir en el parto de un bebé de una mujer gentilicia en el sábado. (p. 41)

¿Conseguido eso? Si usted es judío y tiene una condición peligrosa para la vida entonces se ordena a su doctor judío que viole el sábado para cuidar para usted pero si usted no es un judío entonces, según ley judía, prohíben a su doctor judío cuidar para usted en el sábado incluso si su vida está en peligro.

Pero, espera. "[ 19 ] Sin embargo, se permite hoy para profanar el sábado a nombre de un gentil ..." ¿Y, por qué es eso? No es porque las vidas no judíos están de valor igual con vidas judías. ¡Ay no! La razón indicada en el resto del párrafo 19 es "... para tan haciendo uno evita hostilidad se presenten entre el judío y el gentil." Tordo, cuidado para ese gentil enfermo en el sábado porque, bien, es bueno para los judíos. Para amplificar este punto, cotizo del párrafo 21:

Para evitar cualquier transgresión de la ley, hay un método legalmente aceptable de rendir el tratamiento a nombre de un paciente gentil incluso al ocuparse de la violación de la ley bíblica. Se sugiere que ése el médico está proporcionando en ese entonces el cuidado necesario, sus intenciones no debe sobre todo deber curar al paciente, pero protegerse y a la gente judía contra las acusaciones de la discriminación religiosa y de la venganza severa que pueden poner en peligro a lo en detalle y a la gente judía en general. Con esta intención, cualquier acto por la pieza del médico se convierte en "un acto que resultado real no es su propósito primario" (melakhah sheeinah tzerikhah legufa) ... (los pp. 41-42)

¿Allí, esto marca que ustedes gentiles la sensación mejor sobre su médico judío observador? Si cualquier persona sabe de paralelo a esto en la ley religiosa contemporánea de otras religiones entonces satisfaga déjeme saber sobre él.

Algunos sionistas tienen gusto de jactarse sobre la calidad multicultural/pluriracial del judaísmo y de Israel. Qué ellos no saben ni hablan alrededor es el hecho de que muchos judíos no europeos son religioso sospechados y conforme a la discriminación en Israel. Referente a judíos de la India, de Etiopía, y de Portugal, JML dice:

[ 14 ] Se permite para profanar el sábado para salvar la vida de un miembro del B'net Yisrael [o Yehudim Chavashim o Shomrei Shabbath], porque puede ser que sean posiblemente judíos. Esto se aplica a condición de que son Torah y sábado observadores. Si, sin embargo, se comportan como Karaites y deride la creencia judía, él se prohíben para profanar el sábado en su favor. (p. 40)

Es decir déjelos sufrir o morir si no satisfacen las pruebas religiosas. Éstos, por supuesto, no se aplican a los judíos no-observadores de Ashkenazi y de Sephardic.

La derecha móvil a lo largo, en la parte II, capítulo 7 de JML aprendemos que "comer el alimento kosher cocinado por un gentil fue prohibida por el decreto rabínico para evitar que los judíos socialicen con sus vecinos gentile, así la disuasión de matrimonio entre los judíos y los no judío" (p. 61). En la misma sección, es que si un gentil cocina para un paciente judío en el sábado entonces los utensilios que cocinan son tref, es decir ritualmente sucio explicado, por 24 horas a menos que se sumerjan en el agua hirvienda (pp. 61-62). Si un judío hizo la preparación de alimento entonces no se requiere ninguna inmersión ni el período de espera (p. 62).

Ahora, hablemos el dinero. Un "médico observador puede no desear aceptar el pago para los servicios rendidos en el sábado" y lo permiten para declinar el pago (p. 73). A menos que, "se prohíba para que a un médico beneficie del honorario de sábado de un paciente gentil. Él debe destruir el dinero ... o darlo a la caridad. Bajo ningunas circunstancias él trate a pacientes gentiles para libre en el sábado "(p. 73).

El foco de este mensaje está en el racismo o el chauvinism en judaísmo pero en la parte IV, el capítulo 1 de JML aprendemos un pedacito sobre sexism en "judaísmo clásico:"

[ 1 ] Prohíben a una mujer utilizar medidas anticonceptivas sin el consentimiento de su marido.

[ 2 ] Si el marido todavía no ha satisfecho el mitzvah de la procreación y su esposa puede no hacer embarazada debido a peligro a su salud, él debe divorciar a su esposa más bien que permite que ella utilice la contracepción. (p. 94)

La parte IV, el capítulo 2 de JML dice que el aborto es permitido cuando el embarazo es peligroso para la vida o apenas perjudicial a la salud del judío madre-a-sea, o si judío madre-a-sea está en período de lactancia por otro niño. Con tal que, el aborto se realice en los primeros tres meses del embarazo (pp. 102-104). Ciertos abortos eugenésicos, sin embargo, se permiten para las mujeres judías "hasta el séptimo mes del embarazo" (p. 103).

La única razón permitida de una "mujer gentil" de tener un aborto es si "hay un peligro amenazador de la vida a la madre" (los pp. 104-105). En todos los casos, el "consentimiento del marido" debe ser procurado y un "médico judío es preferible a un médico gentil." Mordechai Halperin, M.D., del centro médico antedicho de Shaare Zedek, sugiere que la pena, bajo ley de Noah, para gentiles que realicen abortos sea muerte.

Los donantes y el médico del semen que utilizan el semen donado "están violando la prohibición severa contra el masturbación" (p. 106) pero la "inseminación artificial realizada con semen de un donante gentile es un mayor profanación de la moralidad judía que la inseminación artificial realizada con el semen donado por un judío" (p. 107). En hecho, "existe la posibilidad que [el uso del semen donado por un gentil] permanentemente proscribiría relaciones sexuales entre el marido y la esposa" (p. 107). Un niño que resulta de la inseminación artificial usando el semen de un gentil "es un pagum (literalmente, manchado)" (p. 108).

Así pues, allí usted lo tiene: Ley médica judía en toda su gloria. Ahora, no creo que la mayoría de los médicos judíos americanos saben alrededor o, mucho menos, adhieren a estas reglas. El punto, aunque, es que éstos no son textos antiguos de la franja. Estas reglas fueron derivadas de Torah, en su sentido más amplio, por un Rabino de corriente principal en el estado judío donde está ortodoxia el único movimiento que se reconoce formalmente y legalmente. La preocupación es que, para cotizar Israel Shahak, estas reglas reflejan "las actitudes del judaísmo histórico a los no judíos ... Esas actitudes influencian necesariamente a muchos judíos, conscientemente o inconscientemente" y de tal racismo soltó el sionismo.

Labels: Español, Jewish supremacism, Jewish violence, Judaism, medicine, Talmud, Zionism

I heard the three two "ex-terrorists" and one former "militant fighter in a civil war" speak last night at the University of Michigan in a fairly packed Rackham auditorium. Let me first say that if the speakers' personal stories were in any significant part true then they deserve our sympathy, understanding, and compassion. They told stories of witnessing and being part of horrific things as children and young men--things that no person should ever being subject to. I wish them true healing--a healing that will allow them to stop projecting the hate they claim they experienced/internalized onto so much of the Muslim and Arab world, a healing that will allow them to stop serving the hateful cause of Christian and Jewish Zionism. If they did the things they said they did in the past then I'm glad they stopped.

The event started with the president of the UM chapter of Young Americans for Freedom [sic] haranguing the folks in yellow shirts who showed up to protest the event. He claimed that yellow was chosen because it is the color of the Lebanese resistance movement Hizbullah. This met with a mild round of applause from YAF supporters and some protesters. I seriously doubt that the Hizbullah association played any part whatsoever in the choice of colors. Having drunk the poisonous kool-aid of the American media, most the students would have been too embarrassed, scandalized, or afraid to intentionally show any solidarity with the Lebanese people or Hizbullah, the group that expelled the Israelis from southern Lebanon in 2000 and effectively defeated them on the battlefield last year despite the huge advantage in weaponry enjoyed by the Israelis. Tip to progressive students: You can stand in solidarity with people resisting oppression even if you don't like or agree with their methods, it just takes courage. Just before the Pledge of Allegiance was said a heckler challenged the crowd to express loyalty to the Constitution instead of a flag.

The first speaker was Kamal Saleem, who straightaway demonstrated his deep commitment to the democratic process by stating of America: "If we don't like her, then we should leave her." Which drew the cheers of the YAFers and the taunt of a heckler "If we don't like her, we should change her." Saleem responded by stating "The airport is not far from here." Saleem's delivery was quite stilted considering he was supposedly telling his life story, a point not lost on the heckler who shouted, apparently accurately, that Saleem was "reading from a script."

Next up was ex-"ex-terrorist", now former "militant fighter in a civil war," Zachariah Anani, who claims to have killed 223 people. He says he is from a prominent Beirut family of Muslim imams and was in training to become an imam himself. Yet, it was not until after his conversion to Christianity by a Baptist missionary (Pat Robertson or one of his followers? They were active in Lebanon) that he first read the Quran!

Anani mentioned the repression of the Saudi regime several times but never called for any diplomatic sanctions or cut off of US military sales and assistance--something this blogger would support--to the kingdom named after the royal family. No mention, either, that the Saudi regime enjoys close, albeit confidential, ties with Israel (see also here) and close ties with the Bush administration.

As I recall, it was during Anani's time that about one-fifth to one-fourth of the crowd walked out in protest to the applause of many of the YAFers. Much of his talk consisted of selectively quoting the Quran in order to demonstrate what an evil and violent religion Islam is. Having read, in English translation, much of the Quran myself, there is no doubt in my mind that there are Quranic texts that can be easily interpreted to justify violence. However, the same could be said of the Bible.

Here's a sample:

Thus says the LORD of hosts, 'I will punish the Amalekites for what they did in opposing the Israelites when they came up out of Egypt.

Now go and smite Amalek, and utterly destroy all that they have, and spare them not; but slay both man and woman, infant and suckling, ox and sheep, camel and ass. Now go and attack Amalek, and utterly destroy all that they have; do not spare them, but kill both man and woman, child and infant, ox and sheep, camel and donkey.' " (I Samuel 15:2-3)

This divine directive to genocide is part of the 613 commandments or mitzvot identified by Maimonides (Rambam) in his Sefer Hamitzvot although a different portion of the Bible is usually cited. Liberal Jews and obfuscators maintain this commandment is no longer in effect because there are no more Amalekites but as Naim Ateek points out in Justice and Only Justice--citing rabbis Moshe Segal, Israel Hess, and Meir Kahane--there is no shortage of Jews who believe the genocide directive applies today to Palestinians, Arabs, and others (see also the discussion by Elliott Horowitz in his introduction to Reckless Rites: Purim and the Legacy of Jewish Violence).

Violent eschatology is a staple of Christian Zionist teaching. Pat Robertson, for example, quotes Zechariah 14:2-4:

For I will gather all the nations against Jerusalem to battle, and the city will be captured, the houses plundered, the women ravished and half of the city exiled, but the rest of the people will not be cut off from the city.

Then the LORD will go forth and fight against those nations, as when He fights on a day of battle.

In that day His feet will stand on the Mount of Olives, which is in front of Jerusalem on the east; and the Mount of Olives will be split in its middle from east to west by a very large valley, so that half of the mountain will move toward the north and the other half toward the south.

Robertson is dead set against the US' Middle East "Road Map" and interprets Zechariah literally, claiming: "Now, that prophecy in Zechariah has not yet totally been fulfilled, but this is a precursor of it because the United Nations represents all of the nations of the earth and they have now come against Jerusalem." He looks forward to and works for the fulfillment of this prophecy.

Apparently, so does "ex-terrorist" number three, Walid Shoebat who is quoted by Arutz Sheva, the Israeli news service:

As an afterthought, but said with a sense of great urgency, the former terrorist turned lover of Zion implored the Nation of Israel, "Please take back the holy Temple Mount."

As a Palestinian "ex-terrorist", former Muslim, and a current Christian Zionist, Shoebat must know that his call is nothing less than a call to apocalyptic holy war to many Muslims, Christians, and Jews.

I'll have more to say about Shoebat's talk, suppression of free speech, press coverage, etc. in the next day or two, so check back then.

Labels: free speech, Hizbullah, Islam bashing, Israel, Shoebat, Terrorism, University of Michigan, Zionism

Jewish Witnesses for Peace and Friends is once again calling for justice and peace advocates to protest the Jewish Federation of Washtenaw County's annual "Main Event" at the Ypsilanti Marriott at Eagle Crest (click here for map). The protest starts at 6 pm on Wednesday, December 6, 2006, on the corner of Huron St. and James L. Hart Parkway and is co-sponsored by the Huron Valley Greens.

The Federation comprises the local cadre of the Zionist state terrorist infrastructure and this is its single largest fundraising event of the year. In the 2004-2005 funding cycle, the Federation gave approximately $300,000 to an organ of the Israeli government--the Jewish Agency for Israel (JAFI). The main function of JAFI is to facilitate the settlement of Jews from all over the world on land that has been ethnically cleansed of its indigenous Arab inhabitants but the agency also funds international Zionist propaganda or hasbara campaigns, too. Tens, if not hundreds, of thousands of other Federation dollars make their way to the apartheid state through grants to the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee, birthright israel, Israel Scholarships, etc. Money not sent to the genocidal "Jewish State" stays here and is spent, in part, on indoctrinating local Jews in Jewish chauvinism, which brings us to this year's keynote speaker: rabbi Joseph Telushkin.

Although the Ford Motor Co. is paying to bring Telushkin to Ypsilanti, he is representative of the Zionism and Jewish chauvinism promoted by the Jewish Federation of Washtenaw County. Telushkin co-authored The Nine Questions People Ask About Judaism with Dennis Prager. Prager is a Right wing talk show host, lecturer, etc. who still supports the 2003 US invasion of Iraq and he argued last summer that "Israel's fight for existence against the primitives, fanatics and sadists in Hezbollah and Hamas and elsewhere in the Arab/Muslim world who wish to destroy it" is "the most clarifying moral litmus test of our time" and "Anyone on the Left who cannot see this is either bad, a useful idiot for Islamic terrorists, anti-Semitic or all three." But, I digress.

In The Nine Questions, Telushkin (and his co-author) write (all quotes are from the 1986 edition):

First, violent crime is virtually unknown among observant Jews, and this is as true in societies where Jews constitute the majority of the population (as for example, in Israel) as where Jews constitute a minority. This abhorrence of bloodshed among Jews is historically attributable to Judaism and its laws. Kashrut, for example, has over the past three thousand years generated in Jews a reverence for all life. ... "Consider the one circumstance that no Jewish mother ever killed a chicken with her own hand and you will understand why homicide is rarer among Jews than among any other human groups." [p. 69]

This would be hilarious if it were not such an appalling lie. Jews have shown themselves to be at least as murderous as any other people. One is reminded of the Jewish prominence in Murder, Inc. and other gangs. Can you say Benjamin "Bugsy" Siegel, Meyer Lansky, Louis "Lepke" Buchalter, and Dutch Schultz (born Arthur Flegenheimer) to name a few? Yigal Amir, the assassin of Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin, was a devout Orthodox Jew. Perhaps, the problem is these killers' mothers slaughtered their own chickens. Then, there are the tens of thousands of Germans murdered by Jews after WWII. Not to mention 30,000-90,000 Christians murdered by Jews in 614 A.D. after the Persian conquest of Jerusalem. This is, by no means, an exhaustive list.

And as most Palestinians--and many Israeli Jews--will tell you, the most observant Jewish settlers are typically the most violent. The notorious Baruch Goldstein, a Jewish Defense League alum, comes to mind. According to the Israeli human rights organization B'Tselem, the soldiers and citizens of the "Jewish state" have killed 3,997 Palestinians--including many children and other unarmed noncombatants--during the approximately six years of the second Intifada. Then there's the one thousand or more Lebanese killed by Israelis last summer, again mostly innocent civilians.

In fact, even leaving out the Palestinians killed by Israelis and vice-versa the homicide rate in the "Jewish state" isn't that great in international comparison. The Israeli rate of "Intentional homicide, completed" per 100,000 population was 3.01 and 2.62 in 2003 and 2004, respectively. For example, the corresponding figures from Germany were 0.99 and 0.98; Ireland, 1.12 and 0.91; Iran, 2.64. and 2.93; and from the United Arab Emirates, 1.12 and 0.63. During 1990-1995, Israel had the world's third highest firearm-related homicide rate among children less than 15 years of age.

Furthermore, one wonders if Rabbi Telushkin is either appallingly ignorant or a bald-faced liar when he claims "abhorrence of bloodshed among Jews is historically attributable to Judaism." Judaism and the Tanakh/Old Testament are rife with Jewish-perpetrated slaughter of other peoples--at God's command and otherwise--and/or the celebration of same. Even Isaiah prophesied against Judah: "Your hands are full of blood".

The Passover commemorates the night that "the Lord struck down all the first-born in the land of Egypt, from the first-born of Pharaoh ... to the first-born of the captive who was in the dungeon ... there was a loud cry in Egypt; for there was no house where there was not someone dead" (Exod. 12:29-30). But the Lord passed over the houses of the Israelites and none of them were killed.

According to Aaron J. Tapper ("Towards a Jewish Theology of Nonviolence," Tikkun, March-April 2005) "in traditional homes" Jews recite a prayer known as the Shfokh Chamatkha during the Passover seder:

Pour out Your fury against the nations who do not know You and upon the regions where they do not invoke Your name because they devoured Jacob and desolated his home. Pour out Your wrath on them and may Your blazing anger overtake them. Pursue them with anger and destroy them from under the heavens of Adonai.

In the ninth chapter of book of Esther, which the festive holiday of Purim is based upon, we read:

15And the Jews that were in Shushan gathered themselves together on the fourteenth day also of the month Adar, and slew three hundred men in Shushan; but on the spoil they laid not their hand. 16And the other Jews that were in the king's provinces gathered themselves together, and stood for their lives, and had rest from their enemies, and slew of them that hated them seventy and five thousand--but on the spoil they laid not their hand-- 17on the thirteenth day of the month Adar, and on the fourteenth day of the same they rested, and made it a day of feasting and gladness. [Text is from the 1917 Jewish Publication Society translation]

As Tapper points out, "the text clearly refrains from stating that the tens of thousands of 'assailants' [those killed by Jews] were armed." To state otherwise, i. e. that "assailants" [sic] were armed, "is not the pshat/literal meaning of the passage." In other words, the text gives no indication that the Jews' victims were armed.

As a result of the legacy of violence in Judaism it is not uncommon to find pronouncements from the government-funded Israeli rabbinate sanctioning the killing of non-Jews by Jews. The late Israel Shahak documented several such instances. Thus, at the above mentioned Baruch Goldstein's funeral, Rabbi Yaacov Perrin declared that "1 million Arabs are not worth a Jewish fingernail."

Continuing from the passage cited above, Prager and Telushkin claim, "Second, ethically excellent behavior is expected from observant Jews." Perhaps, they are thinking of people like the Federation's keynote speaker last year: Alan Dershowitz, an acclaimed liar--oops, I mean lawyer--and torture advocate.

Elsewhere in The Nine Questions we learn why Jews shouldn't marry non-Jews. This chapter starts off from an epigraph from Herman Wouk:

These people [Jews who assimilate] ... are lost from Judaism, that is all; lost down a road which has swallowed many more Jews than the Hitler terror ever did. Of course they survive as persons. But from the viewpoint of an army, it makes little difference whether a division is exterminated or disperses into the hills and shuck off it uniforms. [p. 145; italics in original]

The issue we are told is "values, not ethnicity" (p. 146). You see, "Judaism is a superior system" (p. 143) and if your potential spouse shares your concerns and values then "marry that person. Judaism welcomes converts" (p. 146). Otherwise, you're messin' with "the centrality of the Jewish role in the world" (p. 146).

In accordance with Judaism's 3,200-year-old directive (Exodus 19:6) ["ye shall be unto Me a kingdom of priests, and a holy nation"], the Jews must form an army of tender, caring, strong, moral people to combat the hordes of bored, aimless people and the religious and secular totalitarian and nihilistic ideologies to which they are prey. ... It is time--if there is time--to proceed with the world-transforming event which began 3,200 years ago at a mountain in Sinai--the Jewish revolution. [p. 119]

If you marry that "shiksa bitch" then you're doing Hitler's work and messing with the army and the revolution. Oh, and, by the way, Israel is Judaism's "model state ... Now nationally, as well as individually, the Jewish people have the capacity to show the world the moral power of the Jewish ideal" (p. 119). Indeed, they have and Israel is truly a "light unto the nations"--a flashing red light.

Finally, on the marriage topic, there is this gem: "In our personal experiences, we (the authors) have been involved in relationships with Jewish women which were eventually ended because to these women Judaism was likely to remain a peripheral concern" (p. 147). I would love to hear what the women have to say about that; Prager has reportedly been divorced twice.

I'll close with one last nugget of Jewish wisdom from The Nine Questions. Question 6 is "Is There a Difference Between Anti-Zionism and Antisemitism?" In the epigraph to this chapter our demonic duo repeat a quote falsely attributed to the Rev. Martin Luther King: "When people criticize Zionists, they mean Jews" (p. 120; italics in original). Prager and Telushkin also assert: "Unless the Nazis are to be considered the only antisemites in history, anti-Zionists are as antisemitic as every other type of antisemite. Only their motivation may differ. Like all other antisemites, anti-Zionists are at war with nearly every Jews (nearly every Jew has some sense of Jewish national identity and supports Israel's right to exist)" (p. 122).

Here's what Norman Finkelstein says in Beyond Chutzpah: On the Misuse of Anti-Semitism and the Abuse of History:

As already noted, Jewish elites in the United States have enjoyed enormous prosperity. From this combination of economic and political power has sprung, unsurprisingly, a mindset of Jewish superiority. Wrapping themselves in the mantle of The Holocaust ["an ideological representation of the (actual) Nazi holocaust"], these Jewish elites pretend—and, in their own solipsistic universe, perhaps imagine themselves—to be victims, dismissing any and all criticism as manifestations of "anti-Semitism." And, from this lethal brew of formidable power, chauvinistic arrogance, feigned (or imagined) victimhood, and Holocaust-immunity to criticism has sprung a terrifying recklessness and ruthlessness on the part of American Jewish elites. Alongside Israel, they are the main fomenters of anti-Semitism in the world today.

See you next Wednesday.

See also:

• Juan Cole on Prager: Muslims and the 5 Questions
• The Jewish Witnesses for Peace and Friends protest leaflet here.
• "We killed Jesus, we'll kill you too!"

Last revised: 08/25/2007

Labels: Jewish supremacism, Jewish violence, Judaism, Norman G. Finkelstein, Zionism