Terrorism

September 2, 2022 By Olivier Melnick 2 Comments

You say “ZIONISM” like it’s a bad word!

For most people, Zionism is either a word they can hardly explain or has become akin to a cuss word, but what is Zionism? In light of the recent 2022 125th anniversary of the First Zionist Congress, it is essential to understand the term and its implications. Depending on our understanding of the term Zionism, our understanding of Israel’s right to exist will vary. We can look at the definition from the Jewish Virtual Library for Zionism as: “The national movement for the return of the Jewish people to their homeland and the resumption of Jewish sovereignty in the Land of Israel. ” Yet, even with a definition, we must go back in history to track the progress made by Jewish people that lead to the birth of Zionism.

In the late 1700s, there was a movement in Europe known as the Haskalah (enlightenment) which ended in the 1880s. Its leaders promoted a movement based on liberalism and freedom of choice in the hope of seeing the beginning of the emancipation of European Jews as well as their equality wherever they lived…It failed! Then in the late 1800s, came the pogroms (government-sponsored riots) against Eastern European Jews. Leo Pinsker, one of the leaders of the haskalah, got very discouraged. In his 1882 book “Auto-Emancipation” he wrote, “Indeed, what a pitiful figure we cut! We are not counted among the nations, neither have we a voice in their councils, even when the affairs concern us. Our fatherland–the other man’s country; our unity-dispersion; our solidarity – the battle against us; our weapon – humility; our defense – flight; our individuality – adaptability; our future – the next day. What a miserable role for a nation which descends from the Maccabees! … Happily, matters stand somewhat differently now. The events of the last few years in enlightened Germany, in Romania, in Hungary, and especially in Russia have effected what the far bloodiest persecutions of the Middle Ages could not. The national consciousness which until then had lain dormant in sterile martyrdom awoke the masses of the Russian and Romanian Jews and took form in an irresistible movement toward Palestine.”

Within 15 years came the Dreyfus Affair of 1894. French Captain Alfred Dreyfus was falsely accused of treason, stripped of his rank, was imprisoned on Devil’s Island, but eventually vindicated and reinstated. The Jewish journalist from Austria, Theodor Herzl covered the trial in Paris and became rapidly convinced that Dreyfus had been framed and that Jews had no future in Europe. Two years later he published “Der Judenstaadt” (The Jewish State) in which he wrote, “The idea I have developed in this pamphlet is an ancient one: It is the restoration of the Jewish State. . . The decisive factor is our propelling force. And what is that force? The plight of the Jews. . . I am profoundly convinced that I am right, though I doubt whether I shall live to see myself proved so. Those who today inaugurate this movement are unlikely to live to see its glorious culmination. But the very inauguration is enough to inspire in them a high pride and the joy of an inner liberation of their existence.”

In 1897, the First Jewish Congress was convened in Basel, Switzerland. Theodore Herzl expressed something that some have called prophetic. He said, “At Basel, I founded the Jewish State. If I said this out loud today, I would be answered by universal laughter. Perhaps in five years, certainly in fifty, everyone will know it.” Fifty years after the First Zionist Congress was November 29, 1947, when the UN General Assembly voted in favor of partitioning Palestine, putting in motion the re-birth of the modern state of Israel that took place on May 14, 1948. In the decade following Herzl’s death, the Zionist influx continued in the Holy Land, and about 100,000 pioneers lived there. Times were hard, workdays were long, and poverty was rampant, but the spirit of hope kept Zionism alive. On the eve of World War One, Zionism had become a reality, a fragile one, but a reality, nonetheless.

Then, in 1917, the Balfour declaration was another milestone in the process of the re-birth of Israel, followed by one of the best-kept secrets in the history of the Jewish people, the San Remo Conference of 1920, when a legal precedent was made and the rights to Palestine were given to the Jewish people. It also gave the rights to the rest of the Middle East to the Arabs. It established an international legal precedent that superseded any later declaration, even the United Nations didn’t have the right to change it in 1947 had they wanted to. Eventually, on May 14, 1948, Israel was reborn as a modern nation. Even with all this, there is a growing faction of people seeing Zionism as colonialism which according to the dictionary is, “domination of a people or area by a foreign state or nation: the practice of extending and maintaining a nation’s political and economic control over another people or area.” There are several reasons why Zionism is not colonialism or occupation historically speaking:

• The Land of Palestine is the land of Israel with a different name: It is time for people to accept the fact that the word Palestine was simply a name change forced on Israel by Roman emperor Hadrian to further humiliate them after the failed Bar Kochba revolt of A.D. 135. IT IS NOT STOLEN LAND! The stamps, coins, newspapers, passports and other things that said “Palestine” prior to 1948 all had the initials of the two Hebrew words “Eretz” (land) and “Yisrael” (Israel) stamped on them. Nobody argued about Palestine being another name for the geographical area of Israel until Yasir Arafat came onto the political scene and created displaced people with stolen land. Please people, do your homework!

• Israel is not committing ethnic cleansing: Ethnic cleansing or genocide is intentional organized mass murder to eradicate a people group. The Armenian Genocide and the Holocaust qualify as ethnic cleansing. In 1947 there were about 1.2 MM Arabs in British Mandate Palestine. Today, there are more than 6 MM Arabs in the whole land, including about 2 MM in Israel alone. There are more Arabs in Israel today than before 1947. This is the opposite of ethnic cleansing. On the other hand, there are still fewer Jewish people in 2022 than there were prior to the Holocaust.

• Israel is not an apartheid state: Apartheid was South Africa’s way of keeping blacks and whites separated, and as such, it forbade blacks to eat in white restaurants or cafes, attend white schools or universities, be treated in white hospitals, live in white neighborhoods and serve in the white government. Israeli Arabs are full citizens who do not experience any of the restrictions that were known to South Africa. The only difference is with citizens of Gaza and the West Bank, but THEY do not want to be Israeli citizens.

There are also several reasons why Zionism is not colonialism or occupation biblically speaking:
• The land ultimately belongs to God: “The land, moreover, shall not be sold permanently, for the land is Mine; for you are but aliens and sojourners with Me. (LEVITICUS 25:23)

• God gave the land to the Jewish people with very specific boundaries not to be abused: “You have circled this mountain long enough. Now turn north, and command the people, saying, “You will pass through the territory of your brothers the sons of Esau who live in Seir; and they will be afraid of you. So be very careful; do not provoke them, for I will not give you any of their land, even as little as a footstep because I have given Mount Seir to Esau as a possession.” (Deuteronomy 2:3-5; 16-19).

• God Covenanted with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob for the land: “Joseph said to his brothers, “I am about to die, but God will surely take care of you and bring you up from this land to the land which He promised on oath to Abraham, to Isaac and to Jacob.” (Genesis 12:1-3; 15:18-21; 26:2-4; 28:13)

• God told Israel to conquer the land: “Know therefore today that it is the Lord your God who is crossing over before you as a consuming fire. He will destroy them and He will subdue them before you, so that you may drive them out and destroy them quickly, just as the Lord has spoken to you. “Do not say in your heart when the Lord your God has driven them out before you, ‘Because of my righteousness the Lord has brought me in to possess this land,’ but it is because of the wickedness of these nations that the Lord is dispossessing them before you. It is not for your righteousness or for the uprightness of your heart that you are going to possess their land, but it is because of the wickedness of these nations that the Lord your God is driving them out before you, in order to confirm the oath which the Lord swore to your fathers, to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.” (Deuteronomy 9:3-5)

Under Zionism, Arabs who live in Israel are treated equally and with respect, so to be a Zionist doesn’t require being anti-Palestinian, or anti-Arab to be more precise since the Palestinian people are all Arabs dressed in a false “Palestinian” cloak of oppressed victims. Israel welcomes Arabs in all sectors of society, from public servants to doctors to Knesset members. Why won’t Palestinians do likewise? Zionism is not a dirty word; it is the essence of Jewish resilience in light of centuries of persecution. As for me, I would rather be on God’s side and since God was the first Zionist, so will I be, so pick your side and accept the consequences!

July 28, 2022 By Olivier Melnick Leave a Comment

Satan’s Creativity: Antisemites Come in Different Shapes, Sizes and Colors! – Part 2

A few weeks ago, I started a list of all the different types of antisemites. I want to continue that list in part two of this article. Remember that antisemitism cannot be fully understood without the spiritual component that allowed it to persist through the centuries. It is a creation of Satan to eradicate Israel and all Jewish people. Satan is as creative as he is hateful. He has managed to summon Jew hatred from so many people around the world and over the ages.

It really helps to identify all the different types of antisemites that one can run into. Some of them might be harder to identify because of how devious Satan is at disguising the hatred and making it look like social justice. In a day and age when social justice is so attractive, many people will jump on the antisemitism bandwagon, thinking they are doing a great deed.

So, who are these various antisemites? Let us continue our list with a few more in no particular order, keeping in mind that some of the various characteristics might intersect and some people can display several of them all at once. Additionally, the list will keep growing because of Satan’s creative hatred and continued subcontracting of it to many people.

The Boycott antisemite: The Boycott of Israel and Israeli goods and personalities was revived in 2005 by Mahmoud Abbas and Omar Barghouti who repurposed the South African apartheid definition to fit the Palestinian narrative. Fighting real apartheid with a boycott made sense and the concept of a boycott isn’t bad in and of itself, but the BDS (Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions) movement is built on an entirely false premise.

People around the globe have bought into BDS and are promoting it blindly without checking the facts. The boycott antisemite will almost always claim that he/she is anti-Israel or anti-Zionist but not antisemitic. This is another case of trying to hide Jew-hatred under a thin veneer of social justice.

The Neo-Nazi antisemite: The Nazi regime left a scar that will never disappear. So much so, that after WWII, most people believed that the new Jewish motto “NEVER AGAIN” really meant something. To this day, it is very unpopular to join the ranks of any Neo-Nazi group. They only exist on the fringe and do not constitute a very serious threat. This being said, they can still be found in several countries of Europe. They espouse a new brand of Hitlerian ideology and adhere to all the antisemitic tropes and blood libels in the book.

The Coward antisemite: For the better part of 2022, various antisemitic flyers have been found in multiple US states in residential neighborhoods. The flyers accuse the Jewish people of various ills such as controlling the world, the banks, Hollywood and even the Coronavirus. Even though the flyers seem to all be connected to the same internet site known as Goyimtv.tv, there is a certain amount of cowardice in the way they are placed on private residential properties at night.

The Leftist antisemite: In recent years, antisemitism has been heavily promoted by the left. While it is important to recognize that antisemitism currently comes from the left, the right and just about all other political and ideological factions out there, the left is particularly active in denigrating Israel. What is so ludicrous is that the liberal left–for which many Jews vote to this day–is promoting an anti-Israel agenda and a pro-Palestinian narrative.

Even Radical Islam and the liberal left agree on the destruction of Israel and the Jewish people, when ideologically they agree on nothing else, being on two opposite side of the spectrum. Yet, we all know the adage “The enemy of my enemy is my friend!”

The Social Media antisemite: The advent of the Internet changed the way we communicate and consume information and data forever. There is nothing that cannot be shared almost instantly and globally. This too is an aspect of our civilization that is neutral in and of itself but again, fallen into the wrong hands; the Internet is can become a vile and even lethal weapon.

Beyond the Internet is the web of social media networks. These networks have been overwhelmingly used by Jew-haters. Sadly, when many people get penalized for speaking the truth and being perceived as divisive and racist, antisemites the world around seem to have an open platform with almost no censorship.

The Jewish antisemite: While “Jewish Antisemitism” should be an oxymoron, it does exist. It exists on an individual level with liberal Jews who boldly promote Holocaust denial and Israeli colonization and occupation of Palestine. There are also Jewish Religious groups like Neturei Karta meaning “Guardians of the City” who have opposed Zionism since the late 1890s. They even had a conference in Iran. Groups such as The International Jewish Anti-Zionist Network, while being fringe groups, still play a role in the denigration of Israel and the Jewish people. Their voice helps to embolden the more aggressive antisemites of the world.

The Isolated antisemite: Probably the most puzzling antisemite of them all is the isolated antisemite. It is the person who hates Jews openly and yet has never met one in their life. All the other racists base their dislikes of a particular people group or ethnic community on experience and interaction–not that it would ever justify such feelings. For the isolated antisemite, indoctrination against the Jews based on more than 2,000 years of libels and lies is all they need. How one can say they hate someone without having ever met them shows the irrationality of antisemitism.

So, what do all these types of people have in common in spite of their various approaches to the subject of antisemitism?

They are all ignoring facts to come to their conclusions.
• They are promoting lies knowingly.
• They do not accept correction easily if at all.
• They are willing to join arms with enemies for the sake of their common agenda.
• They are believing the most irrational stories.

From a biblical perspective, it is rather obvious that they have chosen their side. They take the side of the enemy of God, Satan, who hates what God loves and loves what God hates. I am not implying that antisemites are all demon-possessed (although some might be), but I am saying that they are allowing Satan to influence them. He is the only being crafty enough to make the irrational look and sound rational. He knows that Israel is the key player in the Second Coming of the Messiah, which also spells his final demise, so he has done everything to stop that or at least postpone it.

“Antisemitism is the irrational and satanic hatred of the Jewish people and Israel characterized by thoughts, words or deeds against them.” There is no room for Christians or people of goodwill in that definition. Period!

July 18, 2022 By Olivier Melnick 6 Comments

Satan’s Creativity: Antisemites Come in Different Shapes, Sizes and Colors! – Part 1

As early as the first Jews were described in the Bible, antisemitism was a thing. And thousands of years later, it continues to be a thing. What could possibly fuel so much hatred against the same people group for such a long time? It is fair and accurate to say that Jewish history has been and continues to be punctuated by acts of antisemitism. Most scholars who write and teach on antisemitism through the ages are somewhat puzzled at its pernicious persistence. I believe that it is due to the fact that they do not take into account the spiritual aspect of the oldest hatred. The moment God expressed interest in the Jewish people and shared His plan for Israel and her people, His archenemy, Satan, started to work towards eliminating the chosen people.

Antisemitism cannot be fully understood without the spiritual component that allowed it to persist through the centuries. It is a creation of Satan to eradicate Israel and all Jewish people. He tried to kill the “Seed of the Woman” (Messiah) in Genesis 3:15, and then corrupt the lineage of the Jewish Messiah in Genesis 6:1-5. He turned the Amalekites against the Jews in the wilderness in Deuteronomy 25:17-19. We cannot forget his attempt at completely annihilating the Jews through Haman in the book of Esther.

Yet, Satan didn’t stop there. He continued to turn the world against the Jews, and when Yeshua of Nazareth–the Jewish Messiah–gave His life on that cross for all of us two millennia ago, it didn’t take long for people to accuse the Jews of deicide (the killing of God). Incidentally, it took the Roman Catholic Church and Pope Paul VI, over 1900 years to officially declare in 1965 in Nostra Aetate, that the Jews were no longer guilty of killing Christ. This hasn’t really stopped some modern Catholics from hating Jews to this day.

Satan is as creative as he is hateful. He has managed to summon Jew hatred from so many people around the world and over the ages. It really helps to identify all the different types of antisemites that one can run into. Some of them might be harder to identify because of how devious Satan is at disguising the hatred and making it look like social justice. In a day and age when social justice is so attractive, many people will jump on the antisemitism bandwagon, thinking that they are doing a great deed. So, who are these various antisemites? Let us list a few in no particular order, keeping in mind that some of these various characteristics might intersect and some people can display several of them all at once. Additionally, the list will keep growing because of Satan’s creative hatred and continued subcontracting of it to many people. I will let you discover where some of these people fit within that list.

The Historical antisemite: Deep in the soil of Europe grows the kind of hatred based on the multiple libels and tropes that have cursed Jewish communities from post-biblical days, through the Middle Ages and the Reformation. This is the antisemite who believes that Jews use Christian blood to make matzah for Passover and that Jews poisoned the wells of Europe to cause the great plague that killed over 50 million people in Europe from 1346 to 1353. This is a brand of antisemitism that is in the DNA of many Europeans.

The Muslim antisemite: Islam (early 7th Century) is much younger than Judaism and Christianity. For the last 13 centuries, Islam has developed into one of the three top world religions. For reasons beyond the scope of this article, parts of Islam have become radicalized, and an intense polarization now exists between our Judeo/Christian community and Islam. Jews have become a prime target of Islam and are often targeted as archenemies worthy of death. The Arab/Israeli conflict of the last century certainly doesn’t help the issue. Children are often indoctrinated against Jews and Israel at a very young age.

The College antisemite: For a couple of decades now, antisemitism has been present on college and university campuses. Unfortunately, due to extreme beliefs taught on campuses across the United States, Jews are targeted as enemies. “Campus Intifada” and “Hate Fests” are held on numerous campuses where most of the speakers are solely antisemitic. Gullible students who don’t communicate with others outside those circles end up believing Israel and the Jewish People are the “great Satan”! When Jewish and pro-Israel or pro-Zionist students try and organize themselves, they almost always get disrupted and shouted out of having a voice.|

The Joking antisemite: Everybody loves a good joke, right? Well, we should be careful not to make ethnic jokes, and most people do pay attention to that warning. Yet, there seems to be a disconnect when it comes to jokes involving Jewish people. People regularly joke about Jewish people being stingy, liking money and good deals, thinking it is funny when it really is very offensive. Most Jewish people will shrug their shoulders and appear to be brushing it off, but it is hurtful. The Joking antisemite thinks he/she is funny, but they are not.

The Christian antisemite: How can one be a Christian and hate the Jewish people? Wasn’t Jesus a Jew? Of course, He was! Unfortunately, starting within one century after the closing of the biblical canon, many Church Fathers started to develop an allegorical approach to the Bible that led them and their disciples to believe that the Christians had replaced the Jews in God’s plan, promises and covenants. This is known today as Replacement Theology and is absolutely not biblical. The Christian antisemite thinks he/she is keeping with the Bible’s instruction by replacing the Jews, but they are actually making God a liar and a covenant breaker. Additionally, another group of Christians teaches that Jewish people do not need Jesus or the Gospel to be saved because they are already accepted by God by virtue of being Jewish. This is known as Dual Covenant theology and is also not biblical. Actually, to love Jewish people, but refrain from sharing the gospel with them, is a form of soft antisemitism.

The Political antisemite: The political arena is not exempt from the poison of antisemitism. Various states have elected representatives who claim not to be antisemitic, but only anti-Zionists. These representatives have infiltrated Congress and are fighting hard to give Israel and the Jewish people a bad rep. They claim that Israel is an occupier, colonizer and human rights violator while completely ignoring terrorist attacks against Israel and the Jewish people. The political antisemites lobby against Israel and slowly recruit more of their acolytes who will grow their ranks and help pass more resolutions against Israel.

The United Nations antisemite: When it comes to resolutions, we cannot ignore the many antisemites filling the ranks at the UN. Fourteen resolutions were passed against Israel (population 9.5 MM) in 2021, while five were passed against the rest of the world (population 7.9B), which shows the vast imbalance. Israel represents only .012% of the world population. There was three times more resolution against a country the size of New Jersey than against the whole world. This happened during the 76th session of the UN General Assembly for 2021-2022. UN antisemitism comes from various countries, many of them from the Middle East, but not exclusively. Israel’s demonization at the UN makes one wonder what they are really “United” about?

The Theological antisemite: At a recent Christian conference that is known for supporting Israel, I walked into a hallway and overheard a man conversing with a fellow Jewish believer in Yeshua. I was shocked when the man dogmatically claimed that “the Jews killed Christ!” I had to stop and ask him what he meant after I told him that both of his interlocutors were Jewish. His response was even worse. He told me, “I was only speaking theologically!” How can one spew that kind of nonsensical hatred and claim that it was just a theological statement? You cannot cover antisemitism with a veneer of theology. I asked the man if Hitler killed six million theologically as well. He had no comments.

A few more types of antisemites need to be listed and exposed, but for now, we need to pause and reflect on the first eight of our list. You probably know someone who fits the bill or even more than one type within the same person. People can be corrected once we know that they need correction. We have to do our part firmly and in love. In part II, I will list nine more types and we will look at what they all have in common and how we can start to redirect their biased and xenophobic mentalities toward the truth about Israel and the Jewish people.

June 24, 2022 By Olivier Melnick 4 Comments

Antisemitism in the Police Force: Condoned or Condemned?

A great test to determine if a thought, word or deed is antisemitic, is the test developed in 2003 by Russian refusenik turned Israeli politician Nathan Sharansky. The test is known as the “Three Ds” or “3D Test.” It comprises three components to help one determine if something is antisemitic. The three Ds stand for Delegitimization, Demonization and Double Standards. When it is all said and done, any antisemitic act will without fail fall under one or more of these criteria. So, how does it work when we look at the Cleveland, Ohio police officer who glorified Hitler, Bin Laden and Hamas?

Ismail Quran was hired by the Cleveland Police Department in 2018. In November 2021, he was named “Officer of the Year” and subsequently received the service medal that comes with the award at the Cleveland Division of Police Awards Ceremony. Officer Quran was praised for many good deeds he performed while on duty. In a day and age when police officers are being mocked, denigrated and even defunded, it is great to witness the recognition that an officer receives from his peers. Unfortunately, as it was first reported by Canary Mission, Ismail Quran seems to be bringing baggage to his job on the Police force. It is the kind of baggage that should disqualify anybody from getting an award of that kind, let alone being kept on the force on active duty.

It doesn’t matter how great a police officer might be, if they are antisemitic and cannot control their outbursts of hatred, should they really be protecting our communities? What happens when a Jewish person is involved as a victim of a crime? Will the officer be fair in his duty or will he use double standards? Let’s apply the 3Ds Test and my definition of antisemitism stating that: “Antisemitism is the irrational and satanic hatred of the Jews and Israel characterized by destructive thoughts, words and/or deeds against them”, to the officer’s recent nomination and let’s review some of officer Quran’s recent statements. I will let the reader connect the dots by themselves.

• Ismail Quran belonged to the Muslim Student Union (MSU) while he attended Cuyahoga Community College in Cleveland. The MSU is tied to the Muslim Brotherhood which founded Hamas in 1987. The Muslim Brotherhood and Hamas founded the Council for American Islamic Relations (CAIR) in 1994. Muslim Brotherhood’s motto is: “Allah is our objective. The Prophet is our leader. Qur’an is our law. Jihad is our way. Dying in the way of Allah is our highest hope.” Both the Brotherhood and Hamas have terrorist connections and are very much anti-Israel and anti-Zionism (read “antisemitic”). This was at the very least an indoctrination against Jews and Israel, but did it stick?

• In 2014, Ismail Quran used Twitter to glorify Adolf Hitler. Mr. Quran posted a picture of Hitler with the caption, “LET ME SALUTE TO HITLER THE GREAT” followed by a quote by the Nazi dictator “I would have killed all the Jews of the world, but I kept some to show the world why I killed them.”

• Between 2012 and 2014, Ismail Quran used Social Networks to spread antisemitism. Mr. Quran posted a multitude of messages spreading antisemitic lies and conspiracy theories from “Jews controlling the world” to “Palestine shall be free” and much more including support for the terrorist organization Hamas.
It would appear that many of the posts gathered by Canary Mission have since been removed and some of the accounts even closed.

The first question I have is, “How can such a man even be hired by a United States police department? Are they checking their candidates or are they so desperate that they hire just about anybody with a few credentials? How would the police department have reacted if the candidate showed xenophobic tendencies towards African Americans or any other communities? Were his comments ignored by mistake, by choice, or worse…Were they condoned?

Then, we have to wonder how in the world did officer Quran make it to “2019 Officer of the Year?” I am already flabbergasted at the fact that nobody seems to care about Officer Quran’s hatred for Jews and for Israel, but I am also disgusted by the fact that now he is recognized as an exemplary employee of the Cleveland Police force. What kind of message is this sending to other public servants who also harbor antisemitic sentiments?

It appears that officer Quran’s story suffers from at least two of the three Ds, Double Standard and Demonization. Officer Quran should have never been hired and should have been disciplined for his behavior, not rewarded unless of course, the Cleveland police see no harm done in all that. At a time when antisemitism is again burning through the fields of Western civilization if various Jewish communities cannot even trust their local police, how are we to defend ourselves?

May 24, 2022 By Olivier Melnick 4 Comments

What is the “Nakba” and why it matters to Jews and Christians?

Historically and prophetically speaking, a very important event took place on May 14, 1948, as a result of a United Nations vote that took place in November 1947. Israel was reborn as a modern nation. This didn’t happen in a vacuum. The famous 1917 Balfour Declaration set the wheels in motion for British Mandate Palestine to be born again as the modern Jewish State of Eretz Yisrael. A lesser-known, but equally if not more important event, was the 1920 San Remo Conference. That Italian conference established a legal precedent for the existence of Israel beyond what the Balfour Declaration had provided. In an ideal world, this should have been a geopolitical and legal slam dunk. Well…Not really!

May 14, 1948, was an important date indeed for Jewish people worldwide. Three years after the end of World War Two and the horrors of the Holocaust, European Jews in particular finally had a place to call their own and immigrate to.

on May 15, 1949, the Dhikra an-Nakba, meaning “Memory of the Catastrophe” started being commemorated unofficially. It was later officially established by Yasir Arafat in 1998. It has now become known as the Nakba. This date serves as a reminder of the catastrophe that took place for the Palestinians when Israel became a modern nation. So, apparently, one people group’s independence became another people group’s catastrophe. Is there validity in that claim?

Any time there is a wave of immigration, it has the potential to create a crisis or at the very least, a challenge. Why should it be different when it comes to Israel becoming a nation and starting to receive olim (Jewish immigrants)? Yet, the Nakba rests on a faulty foundation. It assumes that Jewish immigrants came to “Palestine” and stole land that wasn’t theirs. It assumes that Israel is committing crimes against humanity. It assumes that Israel is an apartheid nation, and it assumes that Israel is committing ethnic cleansing. These myths are easily debunked when we look at the facts and I know of no better source to do this than the book by Mitchell Bard: Myths and Facts: A Guide to the Arab Israeli Conflict.

Before accusing Israel of all these terrible acts leading to the Nakba, serious historians, researchers and politicians should consider what really took place. Historian Benny Morris explains: “The international community proposed a compromise between the two movements, giving to each part of the territory, so they would each have a small state. The Palestinians said no and went to war.” I do not agree with a two-state solution, but had the Arabs accepted what was proposed in the 1937 Peel Commission, today, Palestine would be 80% of the land and Israel 20%, and we could be looking at two celebrations today: Israel and Palestine, but instead we look at a 75-year conflict between Arabs and Jews. The reason why? They want 100% of “Palestine” or nothing! So, the colonizing-occupying-ethnic cleansing-apartheid-human rights-abusing narrative continues in full force, and the indoctrinated politically correct masses buy it all; hook, line and sinker.

Capitalizing on the Nakba is always a good idea for the enemies of Israel, especially at a time when facts are ignored. Maybe this is why US Congresswoman Rashida Tlaib recently proposed a congressional resolution to make the United States commemorate the Nakba that coincides with Israel Yom Ha’atzmaut (Israel’s Independence Day.) She was joined by other members of the “squad” Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Ilhan Omar. Ms. Tlaib tweeted “Today, I introduced a resolution recognizing the Nakba (catastrophe), where 400 Palestinian towns and villages were destroyed, over 700,000 Palestinians uprooted from their homes, and made refugees.”

The resolution will most likely receive very few votes if any, but it is a symptom of the longest hatred; the pandemic of anti-Semitism. It doesn’t matter if it is not moving forward because the narrative continues regardless as Institute for Middle East Understanding explains, “the Nakba (“catastrophe” in Arabic) refers to the mass expulsion of Palestinian Arabs from British Mandate Palestine during Israel’s creation (1947-49). The Nakba did not end in 1948 and continues to this day in the form of Israel’s ongoing theft of Palestinian land for illegal settlements and segregated communities in the Palestinian West Bank, including East Jerusalem, its destruction of Palestinian homes and agricultural land, revocation of residency rights, deportations, periodic brutal military assaults that result in mass civilian casualties such as the one that took place in Gaza in the summer of 2014 and spring of 2021, and the denial of the internationally-recognized legal right of return of millions of stateless Palestinian refugees.”

Where is Ms. Tlaib’s rejection of terrorism? Why is she not mentioning what really takes place in Gaza with the hiding of weapons and shooting of missiles from hospitals, schools and civilian areas?

All of this also takes place after the tragic death of an Al-Jazeera journalist in Jenin. The Israeli authorities think that they have acquired the weapon that was used and they have been asking the Palestinian authority for the recovered bullet for ballistics. The Palestinian Authority is refusing to turn in the bullet. With both items, it would be very simple to determine where the lethal shot came from. What is taking so long? Ms. Tlaib is also capitalizing on the death of the journalist, connecting it to the supposed long thread of murders and other crimes committed by Israel since the start of the Nakba. At the same time, Ms. Tlaib completely ignores the 19 Israelis killed in several terrorist attacks in Israel during the Muslim month of Ramadan.

I am certain that the 1948 declaration of independence and the subsequent war of the same name were not without casualties for all sides. War always brings damage and unnecessary deaths, but since 1948, Israel has never started a war, but only responded to attacks.

The Nakba is simply more anti-Semitic propaganda to turn the world against the only democracy in the Middle East, because, from a biblical standpoint, Satan has always had the Jews in his crosshair. He wants to completely destroy those whom God loves (Zechariah 2:8b) and, towards that goal, he is the creator of anti-Semitism. I could almost hear God speaking to the Jewish people and saying:” I have good news and bad news. The good news is that you are my favorite people and the bad news is that you are my favorite people!”

So, let’s recognize that history continues to be re-written by Israel’s enemies and that nobody on that side cares to check for facts. Where are the Israeli/Palestinian conflict “fact-checkers” when we need them?

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