If you haven’t seen Prime Minister Netanyahu’s interview last Sunday on Meet The Press it really is “Must See TV”, to borrow NBC’s slogan.  (NBC is the network that broadcasts Meet The Press in the U.S.)  For those of you who prefer to read the transcript you can find it here.

A few high points:

Obviously, you see a regime that represses its own people and spreads terror far and wide. It is a regime whose real nature has been unmasked, and it’s been unmasked by incredible acts of courage by Iran citizens. They go into the streets, they face bullets and, I tell you, as somebody who believes deeply in democracy, that you see the Iranian lack of democracy at work, and I think this better explains and best explains to the entire world what this regime is truly about.

[…]

Andrei Sakharov, the great Russian scientist and humanist, said that a regime that oppresses its own people sooner or later will oppress its neighbors and, certainly, Iran has been doing that. It’s been calling for the denial of the Holocaust. It’s threatening to wipe Israel off the map; it’s pursuing nuclear weapons to that effect; it’s sponsoring terror against us but throughout the world. So I think what everybody would like to see is a change of policy, both outside and inside.

[…]

I don’t subscribe to the view that Iran’s pursuit of nuclear weapons is a status symbol. It’s not. These are people who are sending thousands and thousands of missiles to their terrorist proxies, Hizbullah and Hamas, with the specific instruction to bomb civilians in Israel. They are supporting terrorists in the world. This is not a status symbol.

To have such a regime acquire nuclear weapons is to risk the fact that they might give it to terrorists or give terrorists a nuclear umbrella - that is a departure in the security of the Middle East and the world, certainly the security of my country. So I wouldn’t treat the subject so lightly.”

Sadly the code to embed the video doesn’t work with the Blogs of Zion software.  The Ministry of Foreign Affairs website does have the full video as well as the transcript.

Yesterday former U.S. President Jimmy Carter visited Neveh Daniel and met with Shaul Goldstien, who leads the Gush Etzion Regional Council, in Goldstien’s home. Here are some of President Carter’s comments as reported by The Jerusalem Post:

This particular settlement area is not one I ever envision being abandoned or changed over into Palestinian territory.”

He added that the Jewish communities in Gush Etzion are among a number of West Bank settlements “…that I think will be here forever.” The former President also thanked the Gush Etzion residents he met with:

I recognize that their suffering is taking place in an area where strife and misunderstanding and animosity exists. I have been fortunate this afternoon in learning the perspective that I did not have. I explained to those listening of my long-time commitment to Israel. The most important element in my life in the last 30 years is to bring peace…”

What makes this statement so important is the fact that it came from President Carter, a political leader widely considered to be strongly pro-Palestinian and who has wrongly compared Israeli policies to South African apartheid. I have been harshly critical of Mr. Carter in the past but this time he absolutely gets it right.

President Carter has come to the same realiztion that Presidents Clinton and Bush have reached: the 1949 armistice line, to so-called “pre-1967 borders” were never intended to be borders at all and simply are not defensible. Israel can never return to those “borders” and the intransigent Palestinian position of refusing to budge from the armistice line or engage in land swaps is a real obstacle to any hope of peace in the future.

Even the use of the term “settlements” is often inaccurate and misleading. Here is what I wrote about the history of the Etzion bloc in March, 2006:

Gush Etzion and pretty much the entire Etzion bloc were Jewish property and Jewish towns prior to 1948. Israeli forces had to evacuate the population when the Jordanian army conquered the area during Israel’s 1948-49 War of Independence. Why does 19 years of illegal Jordanian occupation turn Israeli Jewish towns into colonies? Why was Jordan’s occupation deemed somehow legitimate and Israel’s subsequent control of the area for the next nearly 39 years somehow illegitimate?”

The fact is that all “settlements” are not equal. They do not all have the same history and are not somehow stolen Palestinian land. President Clinton recognized this in regard to the Jewish community in Hebron as well. From the same March, 2006 piece:

…the Jewish community of Hebron lived for many centuries in peace with their Arab neighbors. It was only the violence incited by then Palestinian Arab leader Haj Amin al-Husseini, the British appointed Grand Mufti of Jerusalem, and the subsequent Hebron massacre of 1929, that drove the Jewish community out. The “settlers” in Hebron have simply reclaimed homes and property that was Jewish for centuries and restored a community in a city that is holy to the Jewish people. Hebron is, after all, the site of the Tomb of the Patriarchs, the burial place of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. President Bill Clinton recognized this, proposing at Camp David in 2000 that Palestinians lease the Jewish enclaves in the city to the Jewish inhabitants and/or Israel indefinitely. His idealistic vision was one of Jews and Palestinian Arabs once again living together in peace. Does either the terrorism and slaughter of 1929 or the Jordanian occupation of Hebron from 1948 until 1967 negate the Jewish claims in the city and centuries of continued Jewish presence there?”

Sadly it does not appear that President Obama understands this history in his call for a freeze to all settlement activity. If he was calling for no further expropriation of land from the Palestinian Arabs living in Judea and Samaria I’d agree with the President. If he was talking about not expanding settlements geographically I’d agree that such expansion would be damaging to any prospects for a meaningful peace process. That isn’t what the President is talking about. He is opposed even to natural growth within Jewish towns and cities on land within those communities. President Obama is critical of Israel at a time when Israeli policies have allowed for negligible settlement growth or, in some cases, actual declines in population and as the Netanyahu government forcibly evacuates illegal outposts.

It is high time President Obama stops trying to determine the outcome of peace talks in advance at a time when the Palestinian leadership seems to have little or no interest in compromise or peace. It is particularly important that the President learns more of the history of the Jewish communities in question and comes to the same realizations that President Clinton, President Bush, and now even President Carter have come to. There are Jewish communities beyond the Green Line that are legal, legitimate, and here to stay.

I watched part of the press conference today by Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmedinajad today. I heard his claim that the reporting of what was essentially a stolen election was “slander” by Western journalists. He claimed that the arrests and violence with riot police seen beating protesters was just the normal sort of thing that happens when people “leave a soccer stadium”. I listened to him claim that everyone is equal in Iran and that the people arrested were being “fined” by the police for violating traffic laws. He repeatedly claimed that 40 million people voted in Iran and that “safeguards” the elections. He insisted that there is “no partisanship” in Iran as in the West, that everyone remains friends and nobody asks who you voted for in Iran. All of this was to justify his government’s claim that President Ahmadenijad was reelected with 63% of the vote despite the fact that they have not released any vote tallies and that all polls and press reports prior to the voting indiciated a likely opposite result. Despite President Ahmadenijad’s claims to the contrary it is clear to all the world that is willing to look at Iran honestly that what exists is a theocratic totalitarian state, not a democracy in any sense of the word. This is, of course, the same President Ahmadenijad who denies the Holocaust and wants to wipe Israel off the map and says so to thunderous applause at the U.N. This is the same President Ahmadenijad who sees his country’s quest for both nuclear weapons and ballistic missile technology as a “right”.

Today The New York Times and The Jerusalem Post are reporting that President Obama is still determined to enter into direct talks with Iran in spite of the stolen election. This makes the previous report that that the U.S. administration is not accepting the election results ring hollow. It is time for President Obama and his administration to end their timid, almost acquiescent, approach to Iran. If the President ever needed a justification to change his policy towards Iran he has it in this stolen election. U.S. policy needs to return to one that recognizes that Iran simply will not engage in any meaninfuly negotiations and is effectively immune to diplomacy. If Iran does enter into any talks with the West in general or the United States in particular it is simply to buy time to allow the nuclear and missile programs to be completed.

Three and a half years ago I called for U.S. military action to end the Iranian nuclear program. The point I made then is that the consequences for the U.S. and the world as a whole would be much less severe and fewer lives would be lost if the U.S. rather than Israel took such action. I still believe that is true but I also believe that the Obama administration will never do any such thing. We know that last September Israel was prepared to go ahead with such an attack. It has been widely reported that President Bush effectively vetoed the action and that Prime Minister Olmert decided not to act without American support. Earlier this month we had the spectacle of Israeli Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman assuring the Russians that Israel will not attack Iran and that this is an international problem, not an Israeli one per se. Never mind that the international community, as demonstrated in April at the U.N. Durban II conference, would be perfectly content to see Israel destroyed and that Iranian leaders have promised to do just that.

The “election” in Iran demonstrates clearly that Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei is very much in charge and that Iran’s President will be whomever Khamenei decides will be President. The people of Iran, whom President Ahmadenijad insists have “total freedom”, have no say whatsoever. The aftermath of the election, with internet services blocked, newspapers shut down, and the opposition either arrested or under threat of arrest, signals clearly that nothing is going to change in Iran. Their desire to destroy Israel and to have a leadership that proclaims that openly has not changed.

What needs to change is the timid response by the United States and the equally timid response by Israel at America’s behest. Americans need to remember that there is only one nation that the Iranian leadership hates more than Israel: the “Great Satan”, the United States. With a theocratic regims that believes that an apocalyptic battle will set the stage for the return of the 12th Imam, the Islamic messiah, it would be foolish to believe that given nuclear weapons and the ability to deliver them that Iran would not use them. This sham election should serve as a reminder than nothing short of military action will prevent that. I said it three and a half years ago and I repeat it now.

At the very least President Obama needs to untie the hands of Israel’s leadership. Failing that it is time that Prime Minister Netanyahu realizes that he cannot count on the United States to prevent Israel’s destruction. Israel must act to safeguard her citizens and her survival with our without U.S. approval.

Barack Obama will become the first American President ever to host a Passover seder at the White House.

While the story has received minimal mainstream media coverage here in the U.S. it was much bigger news in the Jewish and Israeli press.  The historical significance was not lost on The Jerusalem Post:

‘I’m really happy to hear about it,’ said Steve Rabinowitz, who once led a staff Seder in the Clinton White House but didn’t know of any White House Seder in which the president had personally taken part before now. ‘It’s been an extremely open White House to all faith communities, certainly including ours.’

William Daroff, who runs the United Jewish Communities’ Washington office, recalled that former president Franklin D. Roosevelt snuck out the back door of the White House in 1943 to avoid seeing rabbis marching out front to demand US action to save European Jews from the Nazis.

‘Sixty-six years later the President of the United States is spending Thursday evening with his friends and family celebrating the liberation and survival of the Jewish people,’ Daroff noted, calling the event ‘a testament to how far we have come as a Jewish people in America.’

In a bit of irony former House Speaker Newt Gingrich (R-GA) chose today to declare that the Obama administration is “anti-religious”.  He was referring to the appointment of Harry Knox, a former Methodist minister and an outspoken gay rights advocate to the White House advisory council on faith-based initiatives.  Apparently Mr. Gingrich believes anything other than right-wing evangelical Christianity isn’t worthy of consideration as a religion.  There are any number of liberal and tolerant Christian denominations.  Reform Judaism is openly supportive of gay rights as are many in the Conservative (Masorti) movement.

I’m often asked why Jews tend to vote Democratic by conservative friends who see American liberals as insufficiently supportive of Israel.  While many European leaders were issuing warnings and thinly veiled threats to the new Israeli government even before Prime Minister Netanyahu officially took office President Obama chose that day to declare America’s “unwavering support” for Israel.  Support for Israel among Democratic leaders is not lacking.

Many right-wing Republicans, on the other hand, are very tied to Christian fundamentalism.  Mr. Gingrich also accused President Obama of being “intensely secular”.  As a Jewish woman and a member of a religious minority in the U.S. I am more comfortable with a secular government than an intolerant fundamentalist Christian one.  My mainstream Jewish values are very different than those of the American Christian religious right.

I, for one, am grateful to President Obama’s support for Israel even if I have some reservations about specific elements of his foreign policy.  I think Mr. Gingrich’s comments on the day before the President is taking part in a truly historic Jewish religious observance illustrate very well why I can’t support his views.

To President Obama, and to all my readers:

Hag Sameach!  Happy Passover!

The rather right-wing One Jerusalem website, in an April 2nd article, characterized new Israeli Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman as having the right message but of being the wrong messenger. They describe the vilification of Lieberman in the media:

Critics of Lieberman included the Palestinian Authority, Egypt, western public officials, editorial boards, and most anyone else involved in foreign affairs.

In the vast majority of the reports Lieberman is depicted as a ‘racist’ who hates Arabs. He is also seen as an international outlaw who is challenging the very foundations of Middle Eastern international relations.

The Jerusalem Post covered Lieberman’s speech to his new staff at the foreign ministry. Here are a few highlights:

“I think that we have seen the cheapening of many concepts, first and foremost of the word ‘peace.’ The fact that we say the word ‘peace’ 20 times a day will not bring peace any closer. There have been two governments here that took far-reaching measures: the Sharon government and the Olmert government. They took dramatic steps and made far-reaching proposals. We have seen the disengagement and witnessed the Annapolis accord. I read in the newspaper about the far-reaching proposals made by the prime minister to the other side, which I do not think have ever been made, outside of Barak’s visit to Camp David.

“Israel Beiteinu was not then part of the coalition; Avigdor Lieberman was not the foreign minister. Even if we wanted to, we couldn’t have hampered bringing peace. But I do not see that it brought peace. To the contrary. It is precisely when we made all the concessions that I saw the Durban Conference, I saw two countries in the Arab world suddenly sever relations, recalling their ambassadors - Mauritania and Qatar. Qatar suddenly becoming extremist.

“We are also losing ground every day in public opinion. Does anyone think that concessions, and constantly saying ‘I am prepared to concede,’ and using the word ‘peace’ will lead to anything? No, that will just invite pressure, and more and more wars. ‘Si vis pacem, para bellum’ - if you want peace, prepare for war, be strong. We certainly desire and want peace, but the other side also bears responsibility.”

Am I the only one who is cheering these words? The Foreign Minister is absolutely correct that Israeli concessions have been interpreted as weakness, both in the Arab world and among Israel’s critics in Europe and elsewhere. Withdrawing unilaterally from Gaza didn’t bring the opening for peace that Prime Minister Sharon hoped for. It only brought more bloodshed: bloodshed initiated by Hamas. It also brought more international condemnation. It didn’t matter that not a single Israeli remained in Gaza. It didn’t matter that Egypt also controls a border with Gaza. Somehow Israel was still guilty of “occupation” and “oppression” because it wouldn’t allow the free flow of goods, including weapons, and people, including Hamas and Islamic Jihad terrorists.

Foreign Minister Lieberman is also right to put the onus for peacemaking on the Palestinians. Palestinian President Abbas is boycotting the new Israeli government even as Prime Minister Netanyahu is talking about strengthening the Abbas-led Fatah government and moving ahead with the peace process. To me the speech is a breath of fresh air. It’s about time Israel had a Foreign Minister who is not timid and not afraid to speak the truth.

One Jerusalem has its own objections to Foreign Minister Lieberman. He is an outspoken proponent of a two state solution who has said that he would gladly give up his West Bank home for peace. One Jerusalem doesn’t support a two state solution.

Usually if you are criticized from both the left and right you are doing something right. Next week I’ll look at Foreign Minister Lieberman’s record and statements in more detail. While some respectful criticism of and concern about the Foreign Minister is certainly justified much of the media attacks on him are certainly not.

Hello Hello,

Apologies for the delay, but my life has taken some twists and turns - so I decided to do what’s best for myself. I am learning at the Aish HaTorah Yeshiva in Jerusalem, which is overlooking the Kotel HaMaaravi (The Western Wall) and I couldn’t be more at ease with the world, my religion and my love for both the State of Israel and Eretz Yisrael.

I have to say that being up close and personal I can give some thoughts to the issues at hand and I can’t because Yshiva life is like a bubble in it’s own right, until you hear the vitriol spewing from the Imam on Friday mornings coming from the Temple Mount. First of all, as the Mishna reads in Pirkei Avot, “Love Peace and chace Peace.” That has become my motto because I’ve become aquinted with the right wing Rabbis, who are kind and extremely knowledgeable about all the writings - as well as the left wing elements and the workers of our kitchen at the Yeshiva - Palestinians. I think that it would be much more productive for both sides to lay all their, pardon the French, BullShit aside and start living my that motto. It irks me that the Muslim Authority (Waqf) is trying to disprove Jewish claims to Jerusalem, eventhough it’s mentioned in the Torah over 600 Times! Pop quiz, how many times is Jerusalem mentioned in the Quraan? 0, Zero for the confused.

Also, Holy sites are holy only by name. Wouldn’t it be nice to visit Hebron with ease and harmony instead of looking over your shoulder every second. Sites are sites but Judaism belongs in one place, our minds, hearts and souls. I rather walk than die over a Holy site, which is different than dying for being a Jew - that’s when some Krav Maga is in order.

We have moderates or the relaxed who want peace and quiet on both sides, which I believe is a good amount. So get up and scream that I’m mad as Hell and I’m not gonna take it anymore! Solutions could be found, and I’m in no way capitulating to any side. The words right wing, left wing, liberal, conservative, etc. are just inventions because our societies love to label things they’re scared of. So let’s make them uncomfortable until we all find a solution with the least, or preferably no, blood shed.

Peace and love guys.

PS: Before you get annoyed or angry just keep in mind that I LOVE you all, and I don’t reek of Pachuli, wear TyeDye or like Phish or the Dead.

The pain is intolerable, the sheer wave of stinging coming from my lower left side is indescribable, and there are times where it becomes so painful that I have to slap myself in order to remain conscious. It’s gnawing away at my life force, messing with my equilibrium and breathing, which scares the living daylights out of me.

Now that you’ve vicariously gone through my ills you must be asking your not so humble writer what this all means? What you read is an ode to the pain of the modern Jewish Man/Woman. I think we’re all conflicted by our collective and not so collective history. I feel that American Jews from both the left and the right are conflicted and/or apathetic about their role within their own religion their country and even their place in history.

First we must thank the era of Reaganomics because the 1980’s was the start of the “me” generation and the end of the collective movements for most causes. Every one of us possesses (or hopes to possess) all the luxuries we need within close quadrants. We can stay home, play video games, listen to music, as well as partake in all the mental, spiritual?, and physical pleasures we want. So do we stay indoors and live life for ourself and bludgeon the glut until the red is smeared all over the walls? Do we become so insulated that the “we” disappears and the “I” remains?

This all goes back to every Jew’s connection to the Holy Land. I think as a collective we should point out details that seem inaccurate about Israel and the Zionist machine. History shows that no matter the era (and this pertains to the human sense of time, which can be argued for ours), there was always a Jewish presence in modern day Israel. Muslims are relishing and rather confident in their refusal to mention that FACT. Also, since the days of Ottoman rule over the land of Palestine, Palestinian clans and tribes fought each other bloodily for supremacy. The cycle of violence was nothing new. However, the influx of Jews in the first Aliyah in 1881 made these newcomers, and the local Jewish inhabitants who have been in the region for some time, visible targets for Muslim ire. I think we should all pick up history books because all the media as well as Muslim “politicians” suffer from a collective amnesia. The BBC will remember the Six-Day War but not how it was started, the Economist will remember Sabra and Shatila but nothing of the PLO atrocities committed on both Jews, Christians and Muslims, and the Guardian will talk of the “incursion” into Gaza but barely mention of the large amount of missiles launched into Israel by Hamas. Let’s level the playing field before we go back to the days of propaganda and roundups, as well as snide comments carrying anti-semitic wit.

We should be outraged at these problems but it’s tough to grab you.

This hurts me inside because I’m a lover not a fighter, and I’m not the only Jew or Israeli feeling this pain, We All Are.

Waltz with Bashir has caught the buzz of the world winning many prestigious awards, and now it’s nominated for the grandest of them all - an Academy Award. The Oscar ceremony is the epitome of the lush and grand presentation of Hollywood’s beautiful sleaze in all its grandeur. Waltz With Bashir has been nominated for best foreign language film, on the heels of a predecessor nominated two years ago, Beaufort. Unlike Beaufort, when watching this film your entire body gets a jolt of life and passion, and like Pink Floyd’s The Wall it barely gives you a chance to blink. Every element of this film has combined to make it one of the best films of the 21st century.

Personally I am sick and tired of the same old movie formula of boy meets girl, boy looses girl, comedy shtick, including sidekicks in the middle as our “hero” tries to find her and she tries to find herself. In the end they get back together and end up embracing by the seaside as a corny Billy Joel or Elton John song plays and the credits begin to roll. The modern era has died, welcome to the post modern era where everything both makes and doesn’t make sense. Movies such as the recently released Bob Dylan bio-pic, I’m Not There, push the envelope on convention and Waltz With Bashir will always be remembered as a cornerstone in Film culture. This is how movies should and probably will be made in the future where the linear is dead, long live fragments.

This main reason will be why this wonderful film will win the Oscar and will be seen all over the globe. It was recently screened in Lebanon and the filmmaker is discussing distribution with a representative from a Gulf state.

I wrote a review after I first saw this film and if you’re interested please scroll back to my entry from October 6th, 2008.

Even if the film doesn’t win, it made quite an impact on the film world. It is the filmmaker’s brutal and raw approach at telling his war stories exposing the many problems in the accuracy of memory. The politics of memory, especially during war, are tricky and to present them in a non-linear fashion is a great approach. By chopping up genres and regurgitating them into this masterpiece is Oscar worthy, plus much more.

Aish HaTorah is seen by many Jews across the globe as either a great chance at inviting Jews who want to learn more about their history and culture, or a cult. As a secular person who is trying to be a Ba’al Tshuva - I have partaken in the Aish New York programs and I must say that, besides some of its corny overtures, the people involved are all very caring and loving people. Also, it all goes in your pace and not the pace anyone else wants you to be in. In order for yourself to grow both spiritually and mentally you must dig deep within yourself. Aish HaTorah provided that outlet, and still does, for a person like myself to grow and keep growing for the grace of Hashem.

Unfortunately I never met Rabbi Weinberg, but when I get to Jerusalem next month and start at the Aish Yeshiva, the first think I will do is say a prayer for the man who made my clarity possible. Rest in Peace Rabbi Weinberg.

Below is an article from www.IsraelNN.com

Rabbi Noah Weinberg, the renowned founder and Dean of Yeshiva Aish HaTorah in Jerusalem, passed away Thursday morning in Jerusalem at the age of 78.
The funeral will begin at the Ahavat Torah synagogue in Kiryat Zanz in Jerusalem at 1:30 PM. It will then proceed to Har HaZeitim (Mt. of Olives) for the burial.

A graduate of two prominent yeshivot in the United States – Rabbi Chaim Berlin in New York and Ner Yisrael in Baltimore – Rabbi Weinberg founded or co-founded the two most famous yeshivot in Jerusalem for beginners, Ohr Somayach and Aish HaTorah.
Students of Rabbi Weinberg, who number in the thousands, say his teachings emphasize a close relationship with G-d, as well as maximizing one’s contentment in this world through meaningful activities. His book “What the Angel Taught You” and his tape series “48 Ways to Wisdom” are popular throughout the Jewish world.
Many hundreds of loving and thankful tributes from his students can be read here. The letters thank for him for “changing my life,” “bettering my life and enriching it with Torah,” “G-d gave you a life filled with purpose,” and the like.
Rabbi Weinberg was slowly recuperating late last year from chemotherapy and radiation treatments, when he fell and broke his thigh bone and shoulder. Throughout these difficult periods, however, he continued arriving at Aish HaTorah in the Old City whenever possible.
The Aish.com website, arguably the world’s largest Jewish learning website, states that Aish HaTorah “is dedicated to revitalizing the Jewish people by providing opportunities for Jews of all backgrounds to discover their heritage in an atmosphere of open inquiry and mutual respect.”
Rabbi Weinberg’s Aish HaTorah now operates 27 full-time branches on five continents, with 100,000 people attending Aish programs annually - including Discovery, Hasbara Fellowships, Jerusalem Fellowships, Jewel, and more - in 77 cities in 17 countries. Aish features a large Rabbinical training college at the Western Wall in Jerusalem, as well as a Hesder Yeshiva where students combine their military service with Torah learning.
Aish.com receives over two million visits each month, and some 50,000 hours of Torah tapes and MP3s are listened to each year, and the site features articles and audio segments on spirituality, parenting, dating, weekly Torah portion, Holocaust studies, and Ask the Rabbi. The site operates a 24-hour live webcam from the Western Wall, which has registered 20 million visits. Spin-off sites in Hebrew, Spanish, Portuguese, French and Russian are all leading websites in their respective languages.

To check out the source visit: www.aish.com

Shabbat Shalom

So the president of Venezuela’s campaign of words to inflame hatred of Jews has manifested in the form of violent acts against the Jewish community there. No surprise here! At this point I’m past being shocked about hate crimes against Jews. But, so called “president” Chavez has either not studies history, or he is emulating the wrong people.
Last night a synagogue in Caracas was attacked, not vandalized, but outright attacked! After trashing the ark these so called “people” (who actually stupid animals) left a two messages on the walls. One was “kill all the Jews” and the other was “Jews leave Venezuela now”. These people were acting on ideas that the president himself spouted out of his hate filled mouth. Sound familiar? Now all Jews in this country, some of whom have lived there for generations spanning over centuries have to fear for their lives and property. How far is this situation from escalating to things we saw in Europe about sixty years ago? Not far because an attack on a synagogue with such an organized agenda and serious level of hostility has always escalated to violence against people. As Jews we need not wait and see what happens next, we’ve seen this story unfold so many times in our history. Action is needed now! The government of Israel must send a strong statement to Chavez and put that dictator in line. As far as Im concerned, any attack on Jews in Venezuela is an attack on all Jews and Israel.
I encourage all Jews to learn Krav Maga, the Israeli self defense tactics and to stay close to Israel, if no physically then ideologically. We cannot afford to live at the whim of all these people who decide when Jews are to be tolerated and when not. As a Jew I find the situation in Venezuela to be unacceptable, and the lack of global outcry against this crime is further proof that the Israeli military is the only force to be trusted by Jews for real security. Luckily, we have much support in the US, except for a few left wing extremists who believe all the excrement that is hand fed to them by the Arab propagandists and South American Anti-Semites.
As for Chavez, hopefully some ill will come upon him that will help the country get back on course. But, I will not hold my breath…