The Middle East conflict continues to be punctuated by terrorist attacks, unilateral demands on Israel and the rise and fall of various settlements. Few politicians or diplomats have any hope of the Oslo Accords being resurrected, let alone amount to any progress in the direction of a solid peace agreement.
This doesn’t stop worldwide antisemitic factions from pointing the finger at the perennial Jewish “perpetrators” and feeling “Oh-so-sorry” for the Palestinian “victims”. The message from liberals remains the same:” If only Israel would put down their weapons, we would see peace!”
Israel has been painted as the threat for so long that no longer do we need to see facts to believe reports from the media or the United Nations. The “displaced, abused and underprivileged Palestinians” continue to fight for their freedom against the “oppressor”. And rightfully so the world tells us!
While I agree that the situation in the “disputed territories” is less than ideal, most people in the West have a preconceived notion that Palestinians live in huts, tents and slums, as they constantly get evicted from their homes. THIS IS SO FAR FROM THE TRUTH! Gaza has malls, hotels and restaurants that rival many worldwide urban areas.
So the saga continues as the evening news report of more clashes between IDF soldiers bent on hurting Arabs and innocent Palestinian victims caught in the fire. Many will say that this justifies the violence, comparing the Middle East conflict to the South African Apartheid of yesteryear. Others compare the Palestinian plight to the Civil Rights Movement in America as documented–albeit falsely– in the 2010 movie Little Town of Bethlehem. Of course, evangelicals have their word to say in the matter and so, under the guise of reconciliation, a one-sided “Christian” conference takes place in the Holy Land every couple of years under the name of Christ at the Checkpoint.
While I strongly disagree with any form of violence, I understand that once somebody feels cheated, abused and victimized, they might resort to an armed struggle, violence and even killings. This is where the Palestinians are today, convinced that they belong in the land of Eretz Yisrael that once was the land of their forefathers. Of course the fact that most of the world is helping them to promote a re-writing of history is very helpful to their cause (even though it only became popular through the crafty dealings of Yassir Arafat in the 60s).
So the Palestinians believe that they are “freedom fighters” and so they go against IDF soldiers. But recently, it was also in the West Bank town of Psagot that little Noam Glick was shot in the neck. The question I would like to ask to those who support the “Palestinian victim syndrome” is this: Why would a Palestinian sniper shoot a nine-year old Israeli girl playing in her backyard?
Where is the danger there? What is the rationale for shooting an innocent child? Of course, the Palestinian Authority not only refused to condemn the act but instead decided to praise the shooter.
How in the world is anybody supposed to negotiate peace with people that not only kill innocent children but also receive praise from their leaders for doing so? This is the same Mahmoud Abbas who keeps garnering the world’s attention and compassion for his people.
There are no excuses for such an act NO MATTER WHICH WAY YOU LOOK AT IT!
If I didn’t believe in God and wasn’t a follower of Yeshua (Jesus), I would see absolutely no hope for the Middle East and the whole world for that matter. But in spite of the continuous hatred displayed against my people, in spite of the constant role reversals between the victims and the perpetrators, and the numerous killings, I HAVE HOPE!
My hope doesn’t rest in a fallen world rebelling against God but it rests in the very God that the fallen world is rebelling against. If Israeli children have become the new obstacles to peace in the Middle East and if the “increasingly-not-so” civilized world remains silent about such an act, I am brought down to my knees even more so, and I am compelled to pray for both Israelis and Palestinian to meet the Jewish Messiah without whom they will never be able to reconcile.
Israeli children are not an obstacle to peace in the Middle East anymore than Israel is. Palestinian blindness and generational indoctrination against the Jews IS THE OBSTACLE.
The Muslim Brotherhood Gets a Facelift!
Corporate identity is a very important component in the survival and thriving of any organization. Advertising agencies have charged millions to create, refine and update the images of big corporations. Following many design drafts, executive meetings and focus groups, a new logo emerges and rebrands a corporation allowing it to better relate to its target audience. It is truly a great synthesis of art and science, and as a marketing strategy, it almost always results in a better exposure and a broader reach!
Occasionally, the culture grabs hold of a new image and for various reasons not always immediately clear to the public, the symbol quickly becomes popular. Within weeks and sometimes days, we see the image on posters, the Internet, T-shirts, cards, bracelets, banners, etc.
In light of all that, I noticed that the Muslim Brotherhood recently decided to rebrand itself. Clearly, they did not go on rooftops to trumpet their rebranding, yet they managed to peek the interest of many. Early adopters of the new symbol are now being joined by thousands worldwide. This “cool’ and “hip” new hand signal known as R4BIA (say: RABIA but replace the first A with the digit 4) is spreading like wildfire.
It is some sort of a salute with four fingers extended out and with the thumb folded back inside the palm. It is believed that it originated with the pro-Morsi protesters in support of deposed Egyptian President Mohammed Morsi. But it might have also originated from Turkey. Rabia means four or fourth in Arabic.
According to Ms. Dawn Perlmutter who is considered a leading expert in the areas of religious terrorism and ritualistic crimes,
” The design of the symbol has been endowed with characteristics of the sacred in Islam: the color yellow used in the background signifies the golden Dome of the Rock in Jerusalem and the hand depicted in the color black denotes the black cloth that covers the Kaaba.
… Although the R4BIA symbol may have originally signified solidarity with massacred protesters, the meaning and the imagery has rapidly been radicalized to embody the primary concepts of Islamist propaganda: honor, heroism and martyrdom in the goal of establishing an Islamic caliphate. Images of the R4BIA symbol now include the fingers being depicted as rifles, the hand holding the black flag of jihad and writing on the hand calling for an Islamic Caliphate.” (as quoted by Middle East Forum).
So the R4BIA logo, which by the way is rapidly becoming a movement, is a far cry from a “hip” symbol declaring unity in protest towards freedom. As a matter of fact, if one is to visit their website, it will not take long to discover a hidden–or not so hidden agenda. It even has a song attached to it. It is important to understand that the lyrics of the song were penned by Egyptian professor and activist Sayyid Qutb, a key leader of the Muslim Brotherhood in prison from 1954 to 1966. He also published the virulently antisemitic work Our Struggle Against the Jews in 1950. To many Muslims, Qutb is the epitome of Islamic martyrdom.
If we look at the list under “What is R4BIA”?, buried in a sea of social justice clichés and tag lines are some statements that carry no ambiguity whatsoever. Here are some out of the 39 statements:
• R4BIA is the return of Muslims to world stage
• R4BIA is Egypt, Syria, Palestine and the whole geography of Islam
• R4BIA is the place of people who show the death is a revival
• R4BIA is justice for everyone against rotten Western values
• R4BIA is a pure martyrdom
• R4BIA is the end of Zionists
We ought to exercise caution when we choose to display certain symbols, colors and/or garments. After all, we might not be “what we wear”, but we are at the very least “what we declare”. In the case of R4BIA, and under a thin veneer of social justice, we declare our solidarity with the Muslim Brotherhood and their agenda. It is our responsibility to let others know about this devious rebranding of a very dangerous organization committed to the destruction of Western values and of Israel.
When it Comes to Israel: Relevance is Different from Survival!
The strong desire to see Israel disappear from the map is not a new concept. Going back to some of the biblical text like Psalm 83:4 where Israel’s enemies say:” Come, and let us wipe them out as a nation, that the name of Israel be remembered no more.”
- Number of Arab members of the Knesset since its inception in 1949: 69 (Number of Israelis in any Arab Government: 0)
- Israelis help Palestinians receive proper health care on an individual level as well as institutional level.
- The Knesset passed and proudly upholds the “Basic Law of Human Dignity and Liberty”, the most democratic set of laws in the Middle East.
- Inmates in Israeli prisons are treated like “residents” with much respect and freedoms within the boundaries of their respective facilities. This is hardly the case for other Arab countries.
- Israel passed the Women’s Equal Rights Law in 1951 and has since then been a pioneer in the realm of women’s rights. You can’t say that about any Arab or Muslim country in the region.
It’s like 1975 all over again, when the Spanish dictator Francisco Franco fell into a coma. The news media began a long death watch, announcing each night that Generalissimo Franco was still not dead. This desperate allegiance to the departed echoes in every speech, policy brief and op-ed about the two-state solution today.
He continues to deligitimize Israel by comparing her doomed existence and imminent disappearance to that of other totalitarian regimes (the opposite of what Israel is really about):
Those who assume that Israel will always exist as a Zionist project should consider how quickly the Soviet, Pahlavi Iranian, apartheid South African, Baathist Iraqi and Yugoslavian states unraveled, and how little warning even sharp-eyed observers had that such transformations were imminent.
Not satisfied with the deligitimization of the Jewish State, Mr. Lustick also embraces the quixotic idea that Israel should let go of their nuclear arsenal in good faith so that the rest of the Middle East would follow suit with their weapons of mass destruction:
Negotiating with Arabs and Palestinians based on satisfying their key political requirements, rather than on maximizing Israeli prerogatives, might yield more security and legitimacy. Perhaps publicly acknowledging Israeli mistakes and responsibility for the suffering of Palestinians would enable the Arab side to accept less than what it imagines as full justice. And perhaps Israel’s potent but essentially unusable nuclear weapons arsenal could be sacrificed for a verified and strictly enforced W.M.D.-free zone in the Middle East.
I actually do not believe that Mr. Lustick would be that oblivious to the truth. While I do not know him personally, reading his most recent article goes to prove that fact finding was very low on his priority list, if even present! In my eyes, his display of anti-Israel sentiment is nothing less than academic antisemitism, which is an unfortunate form of Jew hatred that is blindly accepted by the masses on the false premise of education and expertise.
The fact that the New York Times saw value in publishing such an insulting and potentially lethal article doesn’t surprise me and neither does the fact that Mr. Lustick took the time to write it. What saddens me is that most readers will probably swallow that piece hook, line and sinker and further demonize Israel.
While I do not endorse every move made by the Israeli government, Zionism is here to stay not only because it is relevant but also because it is tantamount to Israel’s survival. But first and foremost, it is because of God’s covenant with Abraham that Israel continues to exist against all odds. Israel’s existence defies human logic. This was eloquently stated by Mark Twain when he said:
If the statistics are right, the Jews constitute but one percent of the human race. It suggests a nebulous dim puff of stardust lost in the blaze of the Milky Way. Properly, the Jew ought hardly to be heard of; but he is heard of, has always been heard of. He is as prominent on the planet as any other people… His contributions to the world’s list of great names in literature, science, art, music, finance, medicine, and abstruse learning are also way out of proportion to the weakness of his numbers. He has made a marvelous fight in the world, in all the ages; and has done it with his hands tied behind him. The Egyptian, the Babylonian, and the Persian rose, filled the planet with sound and splendor, then faded to dream-stuff and passed away; the Greek and the Roman followed, and made a vast noise, and they are gone; other peoples have sprung up and held their torch high for a time, but it burned out, and they sit in twilight now, or have vanished…All things are mortal but the Jew; all other forces pass, but he remains. What is the secret of his immortality?
The Cowardice of Israel’s Enemies!
The summer of 1942 was not a good time to be a Jew in Europe, especially one without any papers. This was the case of Maurice Weinzveig, my maternal Grandfather who had been living in the small suburban town of Saint-Mandé on Paris’ East side with his wife Berthe and only daughter Evelyn (my mother). Little did he know that the road to escape the Russian Pogroms would lead to the Holocaust for him and many European Jews.
As he was hiding in the coal cellar under their apartment, his wife and daughter received an unexpected visit from two Gestapo officers looking for Maurice who had apparently been denounced by a neighbor. Berthe’s first answer was of course to deny any knowledge of her husband’s whereabouts, claiming that he had left the house and the area days ago. The two officers warned Bethe that they would return the following morning expecting Maurice to be ready to go with them or they would take her and her daughter instead.
After the Gestapo’s departure, Berthe signaled her husband to come upstairs and shared what had just taken place. Maurice’s initial reaction was indeed to leave immediately and seek a better hiding place. But he was soon made aware of the two officers’ ploy to get him. He was caught between a rock and a hard place. Should he escape and put Evelyn and Berthe at risk or should he surrender and secure their safety?
Maurice was the victim of the Gestapo officers’ cowardice who knew very well that the best way to hurt someone who could possibly sustain pain otherwise, is to hurt the one(s) they care about. Because he loved his family, he had no choice and so the next morning he was ready when they returned and left with them. That was the last time that my mother saw her father. Maurice perished in the horrors of Auschwitz.
Cowardice is often linked to hatred, it is devious and can be very devastating. It resulted in the death of my grandfather and many others and continues on its destructive path as we see it being used by Israel’s enemies on the eve of a strike against Syria by the United States and possibly some of its allies.
Israel has the right to defend itself as all sovereign nations do. Israel doesn’t seem interested in striking Syria unless in an act of retaliation. But it doesn’t matter because regardless of what Israel decides to do or not do, they are caught in the cross hairs. So for the time being, the pressure is on and Israelis are on high alert as they stand in line to receive gas masks from their government. As Israelis are minding their own business and bracing themselves for the worst, Israel’s enemies can’t find anything better than to threaten her destruction if Syria is attacked by the US. This is the epitome of cowardice! Countries are lining up to express their disdain.
• Algerian TV host Yahya Abu Zakariya said on Lebanese TV: “If Syria is attacked, we will annihilate the Zionist entity”.
• Iran said that:” “No military attack will be waged against Syria,Yet if such an incident takes place, which is impossible, the Zionist regime will be the first victim of a military attack on Syria.“
• Syrian army officials told Iranian news agency Fars on Tuesday that: “If Damascus is attacked, Tel Aviv will become a target and a full-scale war against Syria will essentially justify an attack against Israel,” then they added that “If Syria is attacked, Israel will also be set on fire and such an attack will, in turn, engage Syria’s neighbors.”
• Lebanon is sharply divided on the issue of a strike on Syria and while not threatening Israel openly, we must not forget that they are a country hosting the terrorist organization known as Hezbollah (not exactly a friend of the Jewish state).
• Egypt, currently led by an interim and fragile military government, has her hands full with their own revolution. They stated that they do not support a strike on Syria yet they do agree for punitive actions against the perpetrators of the recent internal chemical warfare. The state of affairs in the Sinai region renders the Egypt-Israel border very volatile as well, while Egypt fights Hamas in the region. And the list could go on and on and on!
So, at best, many of the countries surrounding Israel do not support a strike on Syria, but I still wonder what side they would take if push comes to shove. We have seen over the years that Islamic ideology turns out to be a common denominator that can easily create a situation where two or three arch-enemies end-up holding hands against a common enemy of them all, and it is clear that it is Israel that they hate in common.
At worst, several Middle East countries have vowed to strike back at Israel if and when the US, Great Britain and/or any other nations decide on a preemptive strike against Bashar al Assad and his government.
While I wouldn’t put it past them to even activate some sleeper cells in the respective countries that joined to strike Syria, I find it very cowardly that they would retaliate on Israel no matter what. Of course, a lot of this might just be idle threats and empty talk to intimidate the West. Let’s face it, the enemies of the Jewish state have a lot more to lose than to win from a full blown attack on Israel, so all of this might only be antisemitic rhetoric. Yet many of the countries of the Middle East are unpredictable at best and very unstable at worst, so who really knows?
So the threat is out on the table as we are again reminded that the best way to hurt someone who could possibly sustain pain otherwise, is to hurt the one(s) they care about. I have no doubt that Israel can defend herself and I have even less doubt that God is on her side. Her enemies are always looking for new reasons to destroy her and when the Syrian conflict will no longer be on the forefront of the news, the perpetual scapegoat of humanity will assuredly face another existential crisis.
On the other hand, if Israel retaliates and attacks any country of the Middle East for the wrongdoings of another one, it is not cowardice but it is as a result of these countries conspiring to destroy Israel. Their subtle and secret “covenantal” relationships renders them all guilty by association, and that is very different than hurting Israel simply because Western allies hit Syria. In the case of Israel, striking back would be a strategic necessity for survival.
What if you became your own worst enemy: The story of Csanad Szegedi!
While antisemitic thoughts, words and deeds are currently far from being in short supply, if one was to pick a winner in the race for most virulently antisemitic European country, Hungary would most definitely be a contender if not come in first place.
It is estimated that there were between 800,000 and 900,000 Hungarian Jews prior to the Holocaust and that only 200,000-250,000 survived. Today, there are only a little over 100,000 Jews in Hungary (mostly in Budapest) and the vast majority of them would never disclose their Jewishness in public.
The World Jewish Congress just had their 2013 plenary session in Budapest last May, during which Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban delivered a speech reassuring worldwide Jews that they were welcome in Hungary. But Orban’s words seemed pretty empty when he stopped short of exposing Hungary’s extreme-right xenophobic party known as Jobbik. Hungary has seen a rise in antisemitism lately that has been at least partially fueled by the Jobbik party’s diatribes against the Jews. The Jobbik party is only a decade old but already holds over 12% of the seats in Hungary’s parliament and claims to be the “Movement for a Better Hungary” while being openly antisemitic and anti-gypsy. It makes you wonder if by “better Hungary” they mean what Hitler meant by “better Germany”? Incidentally, it was founded by a group of Catholic and Protestant Hungarians and has the word “Christian” in their description. It is doubtful that they mean what I mean by that word. The party also called for a “Jewish List” to be compiled in 2012. Last time my people were put on a list, it didn’t end well for them. I even found the name of my grandfather Maurice Weinzveig on one of these very thoroughly compiled lists showing him on a one-way train ride to Auschwitz. So it is easy to understand why Jobbik is bad news for Jews and for Hungary.
in 2003, in the early stage of Jobbik, a young man by the name of Csanad Szegedi joined the party and immediately showed great potential to be its leader in the future. In 2007 he founded the “Hungarian Guard”, a group very reminiscent of Nazi era militias (banned in 2009). He has been very active within Jobbik and was its vice-president for 6 years. Antisemitism has been a common thread in the fabric of the party and Mr. Szegedi was an unabashed contributor.
THEN THE UNTHINKABLE TOOK PLACE WHEN CSANAD SZEGEDI FOUND OUT HE WAS JEWISH.
Overnight, after having spoken with his maternal grandmother who survived Auschwitz, he became everything he hated and was faced with an overwhelming crisis of conscience. He first tried to bribe the person who had led him to ask his grandmother about his new found identity. His hope was to hide the truth from the public, but eventually, Csanad Szegedi could no longer deny his origins and left Jobbik (although he remains in politics as an independent). He paid a visit to his local Rabbi (Schlomo Koves), apologized for his diatribes against the Jews and even visited Israel with his wife. Szegedi is discovering what it means to be Jewish, and he also has vowed to soon make a visit to Auschwitz to honor his family’s memory. This sobering interview by Dale Hurd of CBN is a testimony to what appears to be a changed man (Crisis of Conscience).
Csanad Szegedi’s journey is a perfect example of the fragility of the structure known as antisemitism. The foundation of antisemitism was laid by Satan himself, immediately after He realized how much God loved the Jewish people and how special they were to Him and to His plan for human history. That foundation still exists and will continue to do so as long as Satan is allowed to roam this earth. So it is important to understand that at the base of antisemitism is spiritual warfare. Yet we can all do our part in preventing the enemy from using people to build upon that foundation. If we don’t do our part, Satan will add layers to the foundation and make it ever so difficult to eradicate the structure. As I see it, each layer builds upon the previous one, unless we prevent it. To human nature, ignorance is added, ten deceit, and finally hatred.
All of us are victims of the Fall. Our HUMAN NATURE is flawed by a plethora of spiritual impurities known as “sins”. We cannot change any of that on our own. As a result of the Fall, we have lost our privilege in God’s eyes and are now spiritually corrupt and punishable by death (the very reason why Yeshua died to pay the fine for us). The sin nature in us makes us very judgmental and often makes us believe that we are better than others when we are not, as the prophet Jeremiah reminds us:“The heart is more deceitful than all else And is desperately sick; Who can understand it? (Jeremiah 17:9)
Knowing full well that his days are numbered and that eventually one day in the future all Israel will be saved (Romans 11:26) according to God’s decree and love for the chosen people, Satan regularly pours his wrath on Israel and the Jews and he does it best by using people, and of course, it helps if they are clueless.
Closely linked to the human nature is HATRED, because let’s face it, it is a lot easier to hate than to love. Hatred is in our nature when love requires work. Hatred is often part of our normal defense mechanism when we feel threatened and singled-out. Remembering that all these layers only stand because they are attached to the foundation of spiritual warfare is helpful in understanding how human beings can be so full of hate for one another. Once the lies have been bought and repeated about Israel, they eventually become the truth and it is a normal next step to hate the Jews.
So how are we to respond if we want to combat antisemitism? Should we move on and let others deal with it? What can one person do, really?
In the words of rabbi and philosopher Abraham Joshua Heschel: In a free society some are guilty but all are responsible. So looking at the four layers applied to the foundation of spiritual warfare:
To human nature we must respond with compassion
To ignorance we must respond with education
To deceit we must respond with the truth
To hatred we must respond with love
In looking at the dramatic turn of events in the life of Csanad Szegedi, it is easy to see that antisemitism really has no foundation outside of the crafty evil plan of Satan for the destruction of God’s chosen people. Mr Szegedi was ignorant, deceived and filled with hatred, but by God’s mercy is now turning into somebody different. Time will only tell how much of a change will take place in this man and how much of a change he will bring to the table to fight antisemitism, but in the meantime, he is proving to all of us that antisemitism is as lethal as it is ludicrous.
Racism is man’s gravest threat to man – the maximum of hatred for a minimum of reason.
Abraham Joshua Heschel
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