By Simon Fischler
Living in Israel is amazing.
I moved to Israel from New York almost eleven years ago and I could never imagine moving back to the States.
My three children were born here and although they also hold American citizenship they are Israeli to the core.
When I see all the horrible things being said about my adopted country, it pains me no end. This open, democratic nation has achieved so much with so little, in such a small amount of time, against the worst odds any nation in this world has faced.
You see, Israel truly is an open democracy. I can actually speak for this because I have lived in two of the most open democracies that still exist on this planet: Israel and the United States of America. Interestingly, many of the people out there who condemn Israel have never set foot in this country. All their information is given to them from jaded, hostile and one-sided sources.
Sadly, some very close friends of mine have come to doubt Israel. I have done my best to give them facts, undeniable facts. In some cases this has helped; in others, it has not.
This country is not perfect; that I know. We have many problems that still need to be fixed -- from education to government corruption. Is there a country, especially a democratic one, not facing these problems?
Most difficult of all, though, is the fact that we Israelis have been forced to fight for our country from its birth. So many of our young have been lost. No matter what, we must continually be ready to fight. If we are not, it could be nothing less than what happened in the Shoah.
On countless occasions we have reached our hands out in peace, but our enemies have refused us each and every time. Sadly, I am only too sure that someday my children will have to continue the fight to protect our nation.
Believe me when I say I want peace for my children more than anything. I also know that the majority of Israelis would be willing to make painful compromises if there ever was a genuine partner for peace.
Unfortunately I see no partner for peace. There is no one on the Palestinian side willing to make the compromises needed and to recognize Israel for what she truly is, the Jewish democratic nation state. Apparently all the Palestinians know how to do is deny Israel’s right to exist while simultaneously making demands she recognize their national aspirations.
Truly, the only way for anyone to see the folly in denying that Israel is an open democracy is to get on a plane and come see this beautiful country up close and personal, as they say.
Please, if you get the chance, come visit our country before you judge her; if you do you will see how wrong all those who condemn Israel truly are. There will also be an open door at our house waiting for you.
Tuesday, December 28, 2010
Sunday, December 26, 2010
A FEW MORE THOUGHTS
By Simon Fischler
Anti-Semitism is possibly the oldest form of Racism this world knows.
From the time of the ancient Greco-Roman world until today almost every generation in the line of humankind has hated the Jews.
Anti-Semites will tell you that they must be right about the Jews; after all so many people for so many generations have hated and attempted to destroy the Hebrew, Israelite and Jewish Nation.
On the other hand, White Europeans and Arab Semites used to think Black Africans were sub-human and therefore it was acceptable to sell them like animals. Remember, a majority of people also used to think the world was flat.
My point is simple: anti-Semitism has been around since humans have been writing their own history. It’s an insidious disease infecting much of the human race, although concentrated in Europe, the American South (with pockets in the West and Midwest), all majority-Arab/Muslim countries (including those on the African continent) and Muslim Asia.
The acute irony – no, tragedy – is that anti-Semitism is almost completely a product of the two religions which have developed from Judaism, and are, in effect, its children: Christianity and Islam.
Sadly, after an all-too-brief period of being politically incorrect, anti-Semitism is on a rapid rise the world over. This ugly monster is alive and thriving again in Europe, where less then a century ago SIX MILLION JEWS were killed in the Shoah.
White Europe has always had a problem with the Jewish Nation. The ancient Greeks and Romans created what we know as anti-Semitism today, because we stubborn Jews refused their sophisticated cultures. To them we were a backwards people, believing in this ridiculous one G-d. we were to be laughed at and despised for our ignorance.
Today’s anti-Semitism has taken a new form and its main target is the Jewish Nation State, Israel.
The anti-Semites of the world spent many hundreds of years killing or dispersing or trying to force us Jews to assimilate or convert us Jews, in order to destroy or squelch the nation of Israel. Now they have decided that this reincarnated nation of Israel no longer deserves to be a nation. How funny is that?
And despite all the genetic tests and DNA tests that point to the fact Jews are a distinct people who share similar genetics, still anti-Semites would take that away from us, ignoring the truths of history.
Fact: The Jewish Nation and Jewish Law governed over the land of Israel long before there were Arabs here, before Mohammad was born and before anything called Islam existed.
Fact: the Cave of the Patriarchs in Hebron was built by the JEWISH King Herod, and is the only fully intact Herodian structure.
Fact: what is called the Al Aksa Mosque was built on the TEMPLE MOUNT, an act of desecration carried out by Colonialist Arab Muslims.
Littered all over the Land of Israel are archaeological sites of HEBREW, ISRAELITE and JEWISH history.
The JEWISH province of JUDEA (Where the name JEW comes from), with its capital of JERUSALEM (Note, Jerusalem is a Hebrew word) was a prominent Roman client state until the final revolt and destruction of the Temple -- long before anyone was called a Palestinian!
Yet somehow the Jewish Nation does not deserve to have self-determination in its historical homeland? That type of thinking only lives in the mind of an ANTI-SEMITE.
Names are a truly important part of a nation. Example, Arabs originally come from the Arabian peninsula, hence the name Arab. The same goes for the Jewish Nation, the name Jew comes from Judea. The Jewish people have always lived in the land of Israel. This was the birthplace of our nation and for much of history we have been a majority in our land.
The name Palestine is very new if one looks at history. On top of that, the name Palestine is a COLONIALIST EUROPEAN name! That is right, the name comes from the Romans and was given to the Jewish province of Judea after the Romans sacked Jerusalem.
The groups and organizations attempting to destroy Israel (and that is exactly what they are attempting) have also taken up a new banner: the complete delegitimization of Israel through the most heinous lies.
It is without a doubt diplomatic terrorism akin to that of the Nazi party in the early thirties. The ringleaders in this new form of terrorism are the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (B.D.S) and the International Solidarity Movement (ISM), two groups claiming to fight for human rights, while espousing the most virulent forms of racism and anti-Semitism. A perfect example of this is the call of both Movements for the outright destruction of Israel and the denial of the Jewish nation’s right to govern itself in its native land.
Movements like BDS and the ISM say Israel has no right to exist as a democratic Jewish nation state. They then continue to demand a Palestinian Arab, Islamic state. This is the must denigrating and racist policy. It is policies like this, ones that say our race is better than yours and more deserving than yours that were the corner stone of Apartheid South Africa.
After calling for anti-Semitic, racist and genocidal policies towards Israel, these organizations then blatantly lie when they accuse Israel of being a racist, Apartheid state. They completely ignore the fact that Israeli Arabs enjoy equal rights in Israel; they overlook the fact that there are thirteen Arab members in the Knesset.
This quote from Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas given yesterday in Ramallah sums up the Palestinian Leadership and all the organizations standing against Israel today: “We have frankly said, and always will say, if there is an independent Palestinian State with Jerusalem as its capital, we won’t agree to the presence of one Israeli in it,”
I'm sorry, but is this not an outright declaration of discrimination? Is this not what made APARTHEID what it was in South Africa? Of course it was.
Anti-Semitism is alive and thriving today Jew Hating is as popular today as it was in Europe in the early twentieth century. The only thing standing in the way of those who hate Israel and in the way of another Holocaust is Israel.
It is high time that Jews around the world realize this. And for any self-hating Jew or any Jew who thinks that secularism or outright denial will save his or her skin should the Jew-haters of the world succeed in destroying Israel, he or she had better look to the past and think again.:
Anti-Semitism is possibly the oldest form of Racism this world knows.
From the time of the ancient Greco-Roman world until today almost every generation in the line of humankind has hated the Jews.
Anti-Semites will tell you that they must be right about the Jews; after all so many people for so many generations have hated and attempted to destroy the Hebrew, Israelite and Jewish Nation.
On the other hand, White Europeans and Arab Semites used to think Black Africans were sub-human and therefore it was acceptable to sell them like animals. Remember, a majority of people also used to think the world was flat.
My point is simple: anti-Semitism has been around since humans have been writing their own history. It’s an insidious disease infecting much of the human race, although concentrated in Europe, the American South (with pockets in the West and Midwest), all majority-Arab/Muslim countries (including those on the African continent) and Muslim Asia.
The acute irony – no, tragedy – is that anti-Semitism is almost completely a product of the two religions which have developed from Judaism, and are, in effect, its children: Christianity and Islam.
Sadly, after an all-too-brief period of being politically incorrect, anti-Semitism is on a rapid rise the world over. This ugly monster is alive and thriving again in Europe, where less then a century ago SIX MILLION JEWS were killed in the Shoah.
White Europe has always had a problem with the Jewish Nation. The ancient Greeks and Romans created what we know as anti-Semitism today, because we stubborn Jews refused their sophisticated cultures. To them we were a backwards people, believing in this ridiculous one G-d. we were to be laughed at and despised for our ignorance.
Today’s anti-Semitism has taken a new form and its main target is the Jewish Nation State, Israel.
The anti-Semites of the world spent many hundreds of years killing or dispersing or trying to force us Jews to assimilate or convert us Jews, in order to destroy or squelch the nation of Israel. Now they have decided that this reincarnated nation of Israel no longer deserves to be a nation. How funny is that?
And despite all the genetic tests and DNA tests that point to the fact Jews are a distinct people who share similar genetics, still anti-Semites would take that away from us, ignoring the truths of history.
Fact: The Jewish Nation and Jewish Law governed over the land of Israel long before there were Arabs here, before Mohammad was born and before anything called Islam existed.
Fact: the Cave of the Patriarchs in Hebron was built by the JEWISH King Herod, and is the only fully intact Herodian structure.
Fact: what is called the Al Aksa Mosque was built on the TEMPLE MOUNT, an act of desecration carried out by Colonialist Arab Muslims.
Littered all over the Land of Israel are archaeological sites of HEBREW, ISRAELITE and JEWISH history.
The JEWISH province of JUDEA (Where the name JEW comes from), with its capital of JERUSALEM (Note, Jerusalem is a Hebrew word) was a prominent Roman client state until the final revolt and destruction of the Temple -- long before anyone was called a Palestinian!
Yet somehow the Jewish Nation does not deserve to have self-determination in its historical homeland? That type of thinking only lives in the mind of an ANTI-SEMITE.
Names are a truly important part of a nation. Example, Arabs originally come from the Arabian peninsula, hence the name Arab. The same goes for the Jewish Nation, the name Jew comes from Judea. The Jewish people have always lived in the land of Israel. This was the birthplace of our nation and for much of history we have been a majority in our land.
The name Palestine is very new if one looks at history. On top of that, the name Palestine is a COLONIALIST EUROPEAN name! That is right, the name comes from the Romans and was given to the Jewish province of Judea after the Romans sacked Jerusalem.
The groups and organizations attempting to destroy Israel (and that is exactly what they are attempting) have also taken up a new banner: the complete delegitimization of Israel through the most heinous lies.
It is without a doubt diplomatic terrorism akin to that of the Nazi party in the early thirties. The ringleaders in this new form of terrorism are the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (B.D.S) and the International Solidarity Movement (ISM), two groups claiming to fight for human rights, while espousing the most virulent forms of racism and anti-Semitism. A perfect example of this is the call of both Movements for the outright destruction of Israel and the denial of the Jewish nation’s right to govern itself in its native land.
Movements like BDS and the ISM say Israel has no right to exist as a democratic Jewish nation state. They then continue to demand a Palestinian Arab, Islamic state. This is the must denigrating and racist policy. It is policies like this, ones that say our race is better than yours and more deserving than yours that were the corner stone of Apartheid South Africa.
After calling for anti-Semitic, racist and genocidal policies towards Israel, these organizations then blatantly lie when they accuse Israel of being a racist, Apartheid state. They completely ignore the fact that Israeli Arabs enjoy equal rights in Israel; they overlook the fact that there are thirteen Arab members in the Knesset.
This quote from Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas given yesterday in Ramallah sums up the Palestinian Leadership and all the organizations standing against Israel today: “We have frankly said, and always will say, if there is an independent Palestinian State with Jerusalem as its capital, we won’t agree to the presence of one Israeli in it,”
I'm sorry, but is this not an outright declaration of discrimination? Is this not what made APARTHEID what it was in South Africa? Of course it was.
Anti-Semitism is alive and thriving today Jew Hating is as popular today as it was in Europe in the early twentieth century. The only thing standing in the way of those who hate Israel and in the way of another Holocaust is Israel.
It is high time that Jews around the world realize this. And for any self-hating Jew or any Jew who thinks that secularism or outright denial will save his or her skin should the Jew-haters of the world succeed in destroying Israel, he or she had better look to the past and think again.:
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