Posted on 01/20/2002 8:45:33 AM PST by Demidog
At the National Press Club, Washington DC , 11 December 2001
With G-D’s help May the Creator grant that my words find favor in His eyes.
Each day’s news brings with it horrible tales of suffering from the Holy Land . The death toll on both sides mounts steadily. Indeed, so overwhelming is the seemingly never-ending stream of death and mayhem that it requires an exceptionally bloody day to merit significant media consideration. We have all grown accustomed to the fact that the Israeli state and its Palestinian opponents are locked in mortal combat. So it has been, so it is and so, it seems, it always will be.
Indeed, this pessimistic prognosis seems rooted in a century of precedent. The first Jewish settlers who came to Palestine with the intention of establishing a sovereign Jewish state there arrived towards the end of the nineteenth century. Palestinian nationalism – then generally subsumed under the title Arab nationalism but soon to assume its more particularistic title – began to flourish at about the same time.
The clash of these movements was played out through various wars, atrocities, revolutions and dispossessions throughout the twentieth century. Various strains of ideology in these rival nationalisms have attempted to bring the matter to closure, either by force of arms or, at times, by recourse to the negotiating table.
All these efforts, be they military or compromise oriented, have one fact in common. Their result is always the same. They have failed – failed utterly and totally. We may delude ourselves by yet dreaming, as many do, that there is one final war or one last peace plan which can calm all those concerned. Unfortunately there is no indication that such is the case.
We of Neturei Karta International find the toll of dead and wounded on both sides to be intolerable. We feel that it is high time for a radical departure from the assumptions that have governed and, effectively stifled free debate on the subject.
Our perspective is far from new. It is the centuries old view of the Torah. It was once universally shared by all Jews and it is only our people’s recent flirtation with assorted secularist dogmas that have caused it to be forgotten of late in some quarters.
Simply stated – The essence of Judaism is our faith -- our belief that G-d spoke to Moses and the assembled multitudes at Sinai and there gave His Revelation to the world. This was, is and always will be, Judaism.
The Jewish exile from the Holy Land , which followed the Roman destruction of the Second Temple close to two thousand years ago, was always viewed by our people as a Divine punishment. The state of exile in which we found ourselves was not seen as the result of military or political weakness. Rather, the Creator had decreed that until such time as He would chose to redeem the world, world Jewry was to remain in exile. The only possible means to alter what was and is a metaphysical state are spiritual. Repentance, prayer, Torah study, deeds of kindness and the like could hasten redemption. Nothing else would be effective. Any other means of ending exile is metaphysically doomed to failure.
Zionism was a movement dedicated to altering this traditional view of redemption. It posited that political maneuvering; revolutionary terror, war and dispossession would yield Jewish salvation.
Nothing could be further from the truths of Judaism.
However, Zionism not only broke with the teachings of our faith, it also entered upon a campaign, now over one hundred years old, to persuade and, eventually, force, when possible, Jews to abandon their allegiance to G-d and the Torah and recreate themselves as secular nationalists.
The Zionist movement was not only a heretical departure from Judaism and a practical attempt to lure Jews from their Torah. It was also monstrously blind to the indigenous inhabitants of the Holy Land . In the 1890s, less than 5% of the Holy Land ’s population was Jewish, yet, Theodore Herzl had the nerve to describe his movement as that of “a people without a land for a land without a people.”
Time and again both Revisionist and Labor Zionists, the former overtly and the latter under the clouds of deceptive rhetoric, have sought the elimination of the Palestinian people from their state. They have dispossessed thousands and refused them the right of return or minimum compensation. They have kept the people of Gaza and the West Bank stripped of basic political and human rights and denied them the dignity of self-determination.
This aggression has plunged the region into its never-ending spiral of bloodshed.
Sad to say, the bloody results of Zionism were not unexpected. They were foretold in the Talmud. There we read that a human based attempt to return en masse to the Holy Land would result in terrifying loss of life. This is an unpleasant truth but its seems quite validated by the past century’s events.
People of the Press, I have come before you today to offer a new perspective on the Middle East, a new explanation as to why all previous attempts at peace making have failed. It is our belief that they are inherently doomed to fail. All of them share one fatal assumption. They find it axiomatic that the state of Israel should exist. And, in contrast to the plain evidence of the past half-century of Jewish history they see its existence as a positive development for the Jewish people.
Only blind dogma could at this date see Israel as something good for the Jewish people. Established as a so-called safe haven it has consistently over the past five decades been the most dangerous place on the face of the earth for a Jew to live. It has been the source of tens of thousands of Jewish deaths, of families torn apart and has left a trail of grieving widows, orphans and friends in its wake.
Not to mention the countless thousands of Jewish souls diverted from religion. And our Rabbis state “If you cause one to sin, it is worse than killing him”.
And, let us not forget that this tale of physical Jewish suffering is far magnified among the Palestinian people, a nation condemned to poverty, persecution, homelessness, all pervasive hopelessness and all too often, a far too premature, death.
This web of pain, the cries and tears of the grieving, demand of us as Jews that we return to the wellsprings of our faith. We must accept our task to serve G-d in humility and peace. This is the essence of a Jew.
And, when so doing we will inevitably reject the bizarre and malicious doctrines of Zionism, the falsification of Judaism.
We will realize that defying the Divine decree of exile is doomed to bloody failure.
We will realize that our people’s hopes cannot be built by shattering those of another people.
We will demand and with G-d’s, help live to see the peaceful dismantling of the state. We will return the land to those who dwelt upon it for centuries, the Palestinian people. Under their sovereignty, we will work towards a just solution to any Jewish – Palestinian problems created by the brief period of Zionist ascendancy.
There are I’m sure some skeptics here in the audience who feel that a Palestinian state would represent a threat to the Jewish people. My friends, I have been there time and time again as Neturei Karta International has visited Palestinian and Islamic organizations and I have been greeted with extraordinary warmth and brotherly concern. We have visited Iran , been hosts of the government. We were allowed to speak in Iran to both Jewish and non-Jewish audiences, without any prior censorship. We have discovered time after time, that Muslims in general actually yearn for good relations with Jews and, that when the evil face of Zionism is stripped away, the naturally good relations between our peoples bubbles to the surface.
Actully history bears witness that through out the centuries Muslim countries were extremely hospitable to the Jews. In fact as a general rule the Jews faired far better in those countries than in other host lands.
And in Palestine alone our grandparent have testified to the fact that the Muslims and Jews lived in peace and harmony up until the advent of Zionism.
Many stories of the close friendship that existed at that time circulate in the Jewish communities, for instance, baby sitting each others children was a daily occurrence
We also operate a web site. There isn’t a day goes by when we don’t receive e- mails from around the Islamic world. They are all positive. They bless, express love and brotherhood. Often they credit us with having cured them of anti Jewish sentiments. From Yemen to Great Britain the delight these people experience in finding anti Zionist Jews is palpable.
This then is the image we offer as an alternative to the current horror – of a Jewish people free of the need to kill and be killed, free to pursue their Divine task of Torah practice and free to live in peace and respect with all men. May the Creator grant that we all be worthy of seeing that day. And ultimately the day when all will recognize the one G-D and serve Him in harmony. AMEN
I attack any stupid decision by our government. You're busy cheering those decisions because you are bent on interpreting anything negative toward support of Israel or things they do as shilling for the PA.
You said you stood for the truth. The truth is that we are being robbed blind and have no choice where the money goes claims that our vote makes a different notwithstanding.
You refuse to distinguish valid criticisms from invalid ones. Planting booby traps where children play is wrong no matter what the motivation. And I'll tell you something else that is wrong even though I might have felt that it was right at the time. The man that shot up that Batmitzvah was executed on the spot by Israeli police.
I don't agree with that either. He wasn't just shot in a gun battle with police. He had been subdued by the crowd. The police dragged him out of the building and shot him 4 times in the head. That is swift justice for sure. But it goes against everything that the U.S. has long stood for. Namely due process. Perhaps not anymore. At any rate. It is not anti-Semitic to call that wrong. And it isn't shilling for Palestinians to say that American taxpayer money should only fund the legitimate functions of OUR government and not our allies or terrorist dictators abroad.
Remarkable, yes. Sad, also.
It seems every religion has its share of leaders who are willing to betray their faith.
Judas comes to mind.
And if you support aid to Israel then you support aid to that terrorist. Plain and simple. The other fact is, that Israel has to cow tow to U.S. demands because of that support. Our aid to Israel and Palestine and the KLA is all wrong because it is taken by force from you and I. And it is used in order to exert influence and control over all.
Why else would the U.S. be a party to the peace process? Because we're the benevolant nation? If we were so benevolant we wouldn't be stealing from our own to prop up people like Arafat. I don't like Sharon much either. So I don't like supporting Sharon either. But what choice have I got? I either support both of these thugs or I go to jail.
We bought our way into the middle east peace process and the only thing we've managed to do is screw it up.
DD if you will recall after WWII we helped relocate many there and promised them support. This was a committment we made and committment we must honor.
Nonetheless, I must admit you are correct in a manner here. Our system of taxation has extracted dollars from us and sent those dollars to the terrorist Arafat. Surely we had no say in the matter nor did we make such committment as we did to the folks we helped relocate there after WWII. This sin of supporting terrorism cannot be reconciled and is in conflict to our original committment to the folks we promised support.
He was already subdued. Are you so sure USA police would also execute the man? This wasn't a gun battle. The articles Dennisw posted into another thread were explicit about that fact. The crowd had swarmed him and were beating him. The police dragged him from the scene and shot him four times in the head.
[110b]
Our Rabbis taught: One should always live in the Land of Israel, even in a town most of whose inhabitants are idolaters, but let no one live outside the Land, even in a town most of whose inhabitants are Israelites; for whoever lives in the Land of Israel may be considered to have a God, but whoever lives outside the Land may be regarded as one who has no God. For it is said in Scripture, To give you the Land of Canaan, to be your God. Has he, then, who does not live in the Land, no God? But [this is what the text intended] to tell you, that whoever lives outside the Land may be regarded as one who worships idols. Similarly it was said in Scripture in [the story of] David, For they have driven me out this day that I should not cleave to the inheritance of the Lord, saying: Go, serve other gods. Now, whoever said to David, ‘Serve other gods’? But [the text intended] to tell you that whoever lives outside the Land may be regarded as one who worships idols.
R. Zera was evading Rab Judah because he desired to go up to the Land of Israel while Rab Judah had expressed [the following view:] Whoever goes up from Babylon to the Land of Israel transgresses a positive commandment, for it is said in Scripture,
[111a]
They shall be carried to Babylon, and there shall they be, until the day that I remember them, saith the Lord. And R. Zera? — That text1 refers to the vessels of ministry. And Rab Judah? — Another text also is available:3 I adjure you, O daughters of Jerusalem, by the gazelles, and by the hinds of the field, [that ye awaken not, nor stir up love, until it please]’. And R. Zera? — That implies that Israel shall not go up [all together as if surrounded] by a wall. And Rab Judah? — Another ‘I adjure you’ is written in Scripture. And R. Zera? — That text is required for [an exposition] like that of R. Jose son of R. Hanina who said: ‘What was the purpose of those three adjurations? — One, that Israel shall not go up [all together as if surrounded] by a wall; the second, that whereby the Holy One, blessed be He, adjured Israel that they shall not rebel against the nations of the world; and the third is that whereby the Holy One, blessed be He, adjured the idolaters that they shall not oppress Israel too much’. And Rab Judah? — It is written in Scripture, That ye awaken not, nor stir up. And R. Zera? — That text is required for [an exposition] like that of R. Levi who stated: ‘What was the purpose of those six adjurations? — Three for the purposes just mentioned and the others, that [the prophets] shall not make known the end, that [the people] shall not delay the end, and that they shall not reveal the secret to the idolaters’.
I get the sense that Zionism per se is neither encouraged nor discouraged in the Talmud. However, considering the central role of the Land of Israel in the theology of Judaism it seems quite clear that a *return* to the land has always been a desire and priority of Jews. The quote given above is really provides weak support for the anti-Zionist (or non-Zionist) position.
Based on these considerations and the Talmudic quote given above I would say that anti-Zionism in Judaism would definitely be a minority viewpoint.
Perhaps someone with an in depth knowledge of these issues could comment.
I guess Bush is stupid and the American Congress as well. You're smarter than them of course.
You said you stood for the truth. The truth is that we are being robbed blind and have no choice where the money goes claims that our vote makes a different notwithstanding.
Run for office then. In the meantime other people pay taxes who do approve of the support.
You refuse to distinguish valid criticisms from invalid ones. Planting booby traps where children play is wrong no matter what the motivation. And I'll tell you something else that is wrong even though I might have felt that it was right at the time. The man that shot up that Batmitzvah was executed on the spot by Israeli police.
Figures. Takes some incidents of error and make a policy of them and then yap about moral equivalency. That kind of lame-brained argument is fit for the dogs.
I don't agree with that either. He wasn't just shot in a gun battle with police. He had been subdued by the crowd. The police dragged him out of the building and shot him 4 times in the head. That is swift justice for sure. But it goes against everything that the U.S. has long stood for. Namely due process. Perhaps not anymore. At any rate. It is not anti-Semitic to call that wrong. And it isn't shilling for Palestinians to say that American taxpayer money should only fund the legitimate functions of OUR government and not our allies or terrorist dictators abroad.
LOL! Let somebody come into your wedding or service and shoot your mom, or dad, or grandfather and guests and then come back to me about "due process". The guy was packing grenades a gun and possibly a body bomb. It's a basic and fundamental principle of law - self-defence and the fact you don't have to weigh with a nicety the force you use to defend yourself - especially when men, women and children are being shot around you. Give it up. The more you talk the weaker you sound.
The problem with that is you are admitting passively that it is not proper to do but perhaps it was ok because he wasn't a citizen of Israel. The real problem with this is allowing your police to become judge, jury and executioner. That's not the kind of power you want your police to have. As I stated above. I certainly would have wanted to do it myself. I still think it's wrong. And it most certainly is NOT anti-Semetic or anti Israel to say so. I'm not saying you're making that claim. The original point was about the assertion that even valid criticisms are treated as .
Do you think you would have known the triggering device? What are you now, an expert on detonation?
Weak. Theft is OK as long as a goodly number agree with it. Don't ever mouth off about moral equivalency. It's apparently part of your new religious beliefs.
If you want to change the balance of power then run for office and change it big talker. Otherwise all I see is a big talking typist.
I believe what you are failing to distinguish is the differentiation between a police action and war against terrorism. When a man strides into a gathering of innocents who are celebrating in a festive tradition and begins cutting them down one by one... then that is war...and war is hell. Death to the intruder is the only reasonable and acceptable conclusion.
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