Posted on 10/10/2006 12:19:54 PM PDT by SJackson
Arabs Still Call Jews "Our Dogs" by Joseph Abdel Wahed Oct 10, '06 / 18 Tishrei 5767 http://www.israelnationalnews.com/article.php3?id=6601 |
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A man brazenly shoots his way into the Jewish Federation of Seattle, kills a woman and wounds four others, three critically. As he opens fire, the alleged assailant says: "I am a Muslim and I'm angry at Israel," as if to indicate that his religious affiliation gives him permission to kill Jews.
In a second incident, Mel Gibson, a Hollywood director and actor, is arrested in Malibu on suspicion of drunk driving. He allegedly screams at the officer: "The Jews are responsible for all the wars in the world," not realizing that nearly all today's wars are Islamic wars. He also asks his arresting officer, "Are you Jewish?" In the third incident, in the streets of San Francisco, Palestinians chanted proudly in Arabic and without fear of being detected, "The Jews are our dogs!" The common denominator in all three incidents is hate, racism, intolerance, and bigotry. While Jew-hating is not a new phenomenon, it has recently become the insult de rigueur in many parts of our society. As a human being, I deplore all forms of hate, but the third incident has a special meaning to me, as the following paragraphs will clearly show. The incident happened when I was at the anti-Israel demonstration in front of the Israeli consulate in San Francisco on Thursday, July 12. The demonstration, organized by a Palestinian group called Al-Awda, was loud, boisterous and passionate. Suddenly and shockingly, demonstrators began chanting in Arabic, "Al-Yahud kelabna!" Or, "The Jews are our dogs!" My first reaction to the Palestinian chanting was one of disbelief. Then, I felt a mixture of fear, anger and heavy-heartedness. Terrible memories cascaded before me, taking me back to when I was a young boy growing up in Egypt. These memories included Egyptian mobs descending upon the Jewish quarter of Cairo chanting "Al-Yahud kelabna," followed by violence that left some Jews dead and injured, and the community dazed. Egyptian Muslim mobs no longer do this, because there is no longer an Egyptian Jewish community to speak of. We once were over 80,000. Today, there are fewer than 50 Jews remaining in Egypt. Indeed, once-thriving Jewish communities in ten Arab countries were likewise cleansed. Today, virtually no Jews remain in the Arab or Muslim world. Arab spokesmen blame the creation of Israel , but, in reality, the situation of Middle Eastern Jewry began to deteriorate years before Israel was established. At the beginning of the 20th century, Egypt was a much more cosmopolitan place than it is today. While this is not an apology for colonialism, nevertheless Egypt under the British was a place where Muslims, Jews and Christians got along fairly harmoniously. But all this began to change as the Muslim Brotherhood - a radical Islamic group whose Palestinian branch is Hamas - began agitating against both the British and the Jews. Along with the rise of Arab nationalism and Arab independence, life for Jews in Egypt and other Arab countries became intolerable. All this happened decades before Israel was established. In the end, within a 20-year period starting in 1945, nearly one million Jews were forced out of Arab countries. In the Egypt of the late 1940s, being Jewish was criminalized. In other Arab states, such as Iraq , Libya and Syria, similar laws were passed. Jews began facing iron walls of discrimination and harassment by the authorities. Most of us were dispossessed. Our schools, homes, synagogues, businesses, farms and hospitals were all confiscated by Arab governments. Our rich, 2,000-year old culture and heritage was decimated. No trial, no jury, no justice. Also heard at the anti-Israel demonstration were chants such as "Black, red, brown, white! We support Hizbullah's fight! Black, red, green, blue! We support Hamas, too!" Personally, I found it rather ironic when demonstrators were screaming at me to "go back to Europe." The ignorance of these demonstrators is profound: the majority of Israel's Jewish population is like me - Jews of color from Arab and other Muslim countries. The demonstrators in San Francisco last week attacked Jews, not Israel. They did it in Arabic, thinking perhaps only they would be in on the "joke." They didn't count on a group of indigenous Middle Eastern Jewish "dogs" being present at the counter-rally across the street. They clearly felt certain that we are "their" dogs. In Arab culture, dogs are considered filthy, dirty beasts and negotiating with "dogs" is not an option. Historically, Jews were often identified this way because for centuries, we were living as a subjected people under the dominant culture of Islam. We were a "protected" minority living under a religious caste system, in which we had to wear identifiable clothes, pay a special tax, were not allowed to ride horses, were forced to live in ghettos, and were submitted to other indignities. Our fortunes fluctuated with the benevolence of whoever was ruling at the time. When he was fair and just, Jews prospered. Otherwise, watch out! Massacres of Jews by Arab Muslims were not unknown. While most people know how European Jews suffered, little is known of the Jews of the Arab world. Today, the Arab and Muslim worlds are the most anti-Semitic of any region. Much of their media - the television programs, cartoons and editorials - promote the kind of anti-Semitism not seen or heard since the time when Hitler walked this earth. In many mosques throughout the region, religious leaders who are quick to take offense over such matters as cartoons regularly teach the vilest anti-Jewish defamation. The effects of this ''education'' are seen and felt even here in San Francisco, where a crowd of young Arab men and women feel perfectly free to chant "Al-Yahud kelabna!" As long as Palestinian and other Arab children are taught such dehumanizing hatred of Jews, there is no hope for the Arabs and there is no hope for us. Peace in the Middle East will not come with the next ceasefire between Israel and Hizbullah, for example, but only when tolerance, compassion, understanding and respect for religious freedom become the dominant value in Arab society. When Arab young people honestly feel too ashamed to chant about Jews being "our dogs," then there will be real hope. Joseph Abdel Wahed, born in Cairo, was forced out of Egypt in 1952 and arrived in America in 1962. He is a co-founder of Jews Indigenous to the Middle East and North Africa (JIMENA) and is active in the San Francisco Jewish Federation. Prior to his retirement, Mr. Abdel Wahed was the chief economist for Wells Fargo Bank in San Francisco |
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Jews at Risk as Turkey Goes Radical by Shelomo Alfassa Oct 10, '06 / 18 Tishrei 5767 http://www.israelnationalnews.com/article.php3?id=6602 |
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With the collapse of the Ottoman Empire in the early twentieth century, the Jews continued to remain close to the Turkish people. In 1923, President Mustafa Kemal Ataturk declared, "Our country has some elements who gave the proof of their fidelity to the motherland. Among them, I have to mention the Jewish element; up to now, the Jews have lived in happiness and from now they will rejoice and will be happy." Today, the tide is turning, and the Turkish land that for so long remained a bastion of peace for the Jews is rapidly becoming a playground for the Islamofascists that feed off of ferocious propaganda being disseminated from Arab countries and Iran. Attacks, violence and anti-Jewish graffiti is becoming more and more common in Turkish cities. Pro-Iranian ideas have infiltrated Turkey, a country that has been a time-honored adversary of the Persian nation. The Jewish Institute for National Security Affairs stated in the Chicago Sun-Times last week that "Turkey has adopted the role of defending Islam against the West, defending Iran...." Both Al-Qaeda and Hizbullah terrorist organizations exist in Turkey, despite a crackdown a few years ago in which security forces arrested 3,370 of their members. Yet, after the 2003 Istanbul synagogue bombings perpetrated by Islamic terrorists, Turkish newspapers declared that "a majority of the Turkish people and its media believe that the bombings were carried out by some Western intelligence agencies...." Recurrently, Istanbul and other major Turkish cities are witness to large-scale protests like those you expect to see in Beirut, Cairo or Tehran. Thousands of marchers organize and protest in the street against Israel with people chanting, "Wake-up Muslims" and "Devotion to Hamas." They carry banners reading, "Israel commits crimes against humanity." These protests are led by Arabs who have migrated to Turkey, as well as newly Arab-inspired Turks. They burn Israeli flags and shout "Murderer Israel!" At one recent protest, a man with a loudspeaker warned that Turkish Muslims would turn against Israel: "God willing, all of Turkey will show in coming days that it is behind Palestine!" Turkey is a country that has always been cordial with the Jews, as well as with the State of Israel, but times are changing rapidly and the Jews there shouldn't remain with blinders on. Turkish Jews live in an Islamic country where, for the last few decades, they have seen the verbal and physical manifestations of anti-Jewish hatred on the rise. And while some Jews remain active in politics, most remain in a purposeful low-profile mode, knowing they are the potential targets of Islamic radicals. While some are keenly aware of the problem and have emigrated to Israel, most remain in denial and refuse to flee. Islamic jihadists both in Turkey and throughout the Muslim world continue to preserve the teachings and vitriol of Adolf Hitler and his Islamic cohort Amin Al-Husseini, the worldwide Arab leader during World War II. During the war, Nazi agents encouraged Arab nationalists to travel to Germany and to study there, while movie theaters in Beirut, Aleppo and Damascus screened German propaganda films and newsreels. As time went on, Nazi ideas diffused into the Arab world. Hitler's Mein Kampf was published in Arabic and today - over six decades post-Hitler - it has become a bestseller in the Arab world and Turkey. Blame and hatred of Jews appeared in the Vakit, a daily Islamist newspaper in Turkey. Notably, an interview was conducted in April 2006 with Ibrahim Sen, a purported Turkish prisoner that claimed to be held at the Guantanamo Bay military prison. Sen claimed he was arrested while studying Islamic studies in Afghanistan, and that he was transported and tortured by American soldiers. His interview became an inciteful anti-Jewish diatribe when he declared that Guantanamo "was filled with Jews," and that "a rabbi was present at interrogations." Sen:
Chief Rabbi Isak Haleva has stood up to the many journalists and politicians who have written both against him and his community. But his pleas for the anti-Jewish rhetoric to be halted have been met with stern warnings and threats. Comments from many different Turkish papers include the following statements and headlines:
While Hitler and his war machine have been long destroyed, the abhorrent paradigm he created of turning Muslims against the Jews, in a most fanatical manner, is still alive and growing. The author's family is of Turkish Jewish background. He was encouraged to write this essay by Jews who recently departed Turkey and were alarmed at the changes mentioned herein. Special thanks to the Middle East Media Research Institute for their assistance on this article. |
As appealing as that idea is, I'd still rather not let them take over.
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When Israel was right with God, the Arabs chopped wood and carried water for the Israelites. It's going to be that way again.
"When Israel was right with God, the Arabs chopped wood and carried water for the Israelites. It's going to be that way again."
Actually the bible and past/current history shows the Israelites treated foreigners with respect, integrating them into their society. I doubt they would be chopping wood, although I am sure Israel will reclaim more land after the next big confrontation.
Good post!
"We in America know the benevolence that is at the heart of Islam. We've seen it in many ways."
Al Arabi al khaziri..
I remember being here five years ago and you never read stories of Jews being tortured in France and having to listen to this in America.
I wonder what it will be like five years from now. Just stop and think about the changes they have brought to the world in the last few years alone.
Was a top contender for Mein Kampf a few years back in Croatia.
"Actually the bible and past/current history shows the Israelites treated foreigners with respect, integrating them into their society. I doubt they would be chopping wood, although I am sure Israel will reclaim more land after the next big confrontation."
22"¶ And Joshua called for them, and he spake unto them, saying, Wherefore have ye beguiled us, saying, We are very far from you; when ye dwell among us?
23 Now therefore ye are cursed, and there shall none of you be freed from being bondmen, and hewers of wood and drawers of water for the house of my God.
24 And they answered Joshua, and said, Because it was certainly told thy servants, how that the LORD thy God commanded his servant Moses to give you all the land, and to destroy all the inhabitants of the land from before you, therefore we were sore afraid of our lives because of you, and have done this thing.
25 And now, behold, we are in thine hand: as it seemeth good and right unto thee to do unto us, do.
26 And so did he unto them, and delivered them out of the hand of the children of Israel, that they slew them not.
27 And Joshua made them that day hewers of wood and drawers of water for the congregation, and for the altar of the LORD, even unto this day, in the place which he should choose." - Joshua 9:22
These are the exception from the population of Canaan that Israel didn't kill en masse. They tricked Israel out of killing them.
"22"¶ And Joshua called for them, and he spake unto them, saying, Wherefore have ye beguiled us, saying, We are very far from you; when ye dwell among us?
23 Now therefore ye are cursed, and there shall none of you be freed from being bondmen, and hewers of wood and drawers of water for the house of my God.
24 And they answered Joshua, and said, Because it was certainly told thy servants, how that the LORD thy God commanded his servant Moses to give you all the land, and to destroy all the inhabitants of the land from before you, therefore we were sore afraid of our lives because of you, and have done this thing.
25 And now, behold, we are in thine hand: as it seemeth good and right unto thee to do unto us, do.
26 And so did he unto them, and delivered them out of the hand of the children of Israel, that they slew them not.
27 And Joshua made them that day hewers of wood and drawers of water for the congregation, and for the altar of the LORD, even unto this day, in the place which he should choose." - Joshua 9:22
These are the exception from the population of Canaan that Israel didn't kill en masse. They tricked Israel out of killing them."
Foreigners were released from servitude after seven years. God does not seem to want mankind to live in slavery. If that is not true, then we as well become muslims as that is their belief for infidels (non-muslims).
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