Showing posts with label Opinion. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Opinion. Show all posts

Thursday, February 23, 2017

 Vic Rosenthal's Weekly Column

On Tuesday, a military court pronounced sentence on Sgt. Elor Azaria, called in Israel’s media “the soldier who shot in Hevron.”

Azaria was convicted of manslaughter after he put a bullet into the head of an Arab terrorist who had been wounded after he stabbed and injured an IDF soldier in March of last year. The incident was filmed by a Palestinian working for the left-wing NGO B’tselem. The video was shown on Israeli television and a massive media/political circus ensued. Even before the IDF investigation was finished, the army Chief of Staff and the Defense Minister made public statements accusing Azaria of misconduct in the harshest terms.

The rules of engagement forbid harming a terrorist who has been “neutralized,” and unless it could be shown that Azaria could have reasonably believed that the terrorist sprawled on the ground was still a threat, shooting him would be a serious violation of protocol. Depending on his intention, it could also be manslaughter or even murder.

During the trial, Azaria’s defense team tried to establish that the shooting was justified. He testified that he feared that the terrorist might be wearing an explosive belt, or that he might reach for a knife nearby. His lawyers even called a witness to argue that it was not Azaria’s bullet that killed the terrorist.

The defense’s arguments were unconvincing, and Azaria’s testimony was at times contradictory. There was testimony from another soldier in his unit that after the shooting Azaria said “He tried to stab a friend of mine and he deserves to die.” The trial continued for several months and numerous witnesses and experts were heard. It was accompanied by heavy media attention and public demonstrations for and against the accused.

The court – three military judges – rejected all of the defense contentions in a very unsympathetic decision that took more than an hour to read, and rendered a verdict of manslaughter. The judges then took up the question of punishment. Azaria could have received as many as 20 years imprisonment, but the prosecution asked for a sentence of three to five years. Tuesday, he was sentenced to 18 months in military prison, 12 months probation, and reduction in rank to private. The contrast between the court’s harsh decision and the very lenient sentence was striking.

Reactions to the sentence illuminated the chasms that exist in Israeli society. Azaria’s family and supporters joined arms and sang “Hatikva” in the courtroom after the sentence was pronounced, and called for him to be pardoned. His father hugged him and said “Elor, you are a hero!” His lawyers promised to appeal the verdict. There were demonstrations in the street outside in his favor, as there were during the trial itself.

But some thought that the verdict was far too lenient. Meretz MK Tamar Zandberg wrote on her Facebook page that “They sentenced [Azaria] to just a year and a half in prison. Azaria needed to be punished, and seriously.” Most public officials have been very uncomfortable with everything having to do with the incident and want to put it behind them.

Not so fast.

What happened was symptomatic of the difficulty a liberal democracy has in dealing with opponents that wage asymmetric warfare against it. It also illustrates the role of the cognitive/psychological war that is raging alongside the terrorism and violence that gets most of the attention.

The incident happened during a time that stabbings and car-rammings against Jews – including women and girls, small children, elderly people, soldiers, policemen and civilians – were at a peak. Almost every day there was another report of a vicious attack, and many of the reports were tragic. Encouraged by the official Palestinian Authority TV and radio, and by social media, PA residents and even some Arab citizens of Israel went on a murder spree. Even Israelis that remember the bombings of the Second Intifada were shocked by the cold, implacable hatred. What kind of creature could go up to a pregnant woman on the street and plunge a knife into her neck?

Israelis saw their soldiers (“everybody’s children”) forced to make life-and-death decisions in difficult circumstances. They saw that Jews are expected to follow the rules, but that for Arabs there are no rules; that Jews are expected to behave according to European standards of civilization, while Arabs are free to compete with each other to be the most barbarous killers.

Many people believe that no terrorist should be allowed to survive his act, but the rules say that once a terrorist is no longer a danger, he should be arrested, not killed. The rules say that a terrorist wounded while trying (or succeeding) to kill Jews should receive medical care. At one point, a directive was even issued that care should be prioritized only by the severity of wounds, and not depend on who is the attacker and who the victim!

Israelis noted how the families of terrorists in Israeli jails are paid salaries by the Palestinian Authority (with money it gets from the US and Europe). The longer the sentence, the higher the wages, so the worst get the most. Those who are killed in the act are glorified as martyrs in the official media, and the ones that survive are often released in “prisoner exchanges” like the 2011 deal in which 1027 terrorists, including numerous multiple murderers, were exchanged for one Israeli soldier, Gilad Shalit.

And – very importantly – they knew that Israel does not apply the death penalty for terrorist murder, so killers would ultimately be able to go on with their lives after serving their sentences (or after being traded for kidnap victims or body parts).

Elor Azaria was asked to do his job in these circumstances. He was 19 at the time. After a terrorist tried to kill his friend, he did what any normal person would be tempted to do. He broke the rules, violated protocol, and gave the terrorist what, in a moral if not legal sense, he deserved.

What should have happened then was an administrative hearing in which he would have been punished for breaking the rules, not a media and political circus and not a conviction for manslaughter. 

But it was not an accident that it played out the way it did. Everything that the IDF does is scrutinized by organizations that claim to work to protect human rights, but whose real purpose is to delegitimize Israel.

Much like the way the communities around Gaza are undermined by Hamas tunnels, Israeli society and media are subverted by anti-state non-governmental organizations, of which B’tselem is a prime example. B’tselem received almost US$ 6 million between 2012 and 2016 from foreign governmental bodies (and more from other anti-Israel sources) for legal, diplomatic, political and propaganda warfare – there is no other way to describe it – against the state of Israel, the IDF and its soldiers. This money paid the operative that recorded the video that was used to blow this incident up into a national  affair, and bought him his camera.

The Azaria prosecution was a propaganda blow against the IDF, which Israel’s enemies want to portray as arbitrarily murdering innocent Arabs. It was damaging to the morale of the soldiers who risk their lives to protect us, and who believe that Azaria’s officers and almost the entire military hierarchy abandoned him (they did). And if it results in more terrorists surviving their encounters with the IDF, then in my opinion that will be unfortunate.

One lesson from the affair is that Israel should apply the death penalty to terrorist murderers. Perhaps some of the frustration felt by our soldiers and police would be alleviated if they knew that an arrested murderer was likely to be executed rather than sent to a relatively (by world standards) comfortable prison where he will draw a salary and await the next prisoner exchange or political deal. 

Another lesson is that the massive “human rights” industry in Israel, which is paid for by some of our worst enemies, needs to have its foreign funding cut off. No other country in the world would permit its enemies to pay for a massive subversive enterprise inside its own borders.

I would like to see Azaria pardoned. He’s been punished adequately since the incident. I would like to see our soldiers and police continue to act aggressively to stop terrorists, and know that their superiors will go to bat for them. And let’s think seriously about the death penalty for terrorist murder.




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Wednesday, February 22, 2017


Yosef Rabin is 32 years old, an immigrant to Israel originally from the United States. He served in the IDF, is married and living in Tel Aviv, and works in an online marketing company. He’s also heavily invested in raising awareness of the Temple Mount.

I first came upon Yosef when he tried and failed to get people to show up for a protest. I wrote to tell him why I hadn’t taken the invite as a serious one, and he private messaged me to discuss things. I was impressed with how much thinking he had invested in this protest and in Temple Mount awareness in general.

Since then, I’ve been trying to lend my hand to his efforts by spreading word of events, protests, and articles relating to the Temple Mount among my followers on Facebook. This is kind of an odd experience for me, since I have never ascended to the Temple Mount. My rabbis don’t permit this. But in the privacy of my inner feelings, I wish with all my heart that I could go up there. I support this effort from the periphery, as someone who wrestles internally with the desire to go up there and feels the necessity of making it possible for Jews to reclaim their holiest site and wrest it from the hands of the enemy.

And so, not being able to go up there myself, but hoping that Yosef’s efforts will bear fruit such that someday, I might yet be able to do so, I continue to lend my support to his project. As such, I made the offer to interview him for my weekly column here at Elder of Ziyon, and Yosef readily assented. Which is part of why I am eager to support him. He is the kind of guy who is ready to take advice and do any and every thing to make this happen: to make the Temple Mount a part of every Jew’s life and to reclaim the Mount for our people.

I just like his attitude.

A bit of background: Yosef has been involved with Jewish rights on the Temple Mount since 2004, and has served as director of foreign affairs for the Movement for Temple Restoration (a member of United Temple Mount Movements) since 2006. He is a founding member of United Temple Mount Movements, an organization established in 2009.  

Yosef has held correspondence on matters relating to the Temple Mount with UNESCO representatives and diplomats from a number of Tel Aviv-based embassies. He has also served as a guide to many guests touring the Temple Mount, including former Canadian Minister Stockwell Day.
By US Mission Canada (Stockwell Day) [CC BY 2.0
(http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0)], via Wikimedia Commons

Judean Rose: Everyone who stumps for an issue has a reason. So why the Temple Mount, as opposed to, say, cancer, or child abuse?

Yosef Rabin: Ever since I was very little the recordings from the Six-Day War, the liberation of the Western Wall and the Temple in particular, made a very deep impression on me. It was like hearing the reverberations of prophecy. I for the longest time could not understand why we were not building the Temple and as a child growing up in Chicago, IL I could not understand why Jews were living outside of Israel at all.

Judean Rose: Your surname is Rabin, which I know is a Cohanic surname. Are you a Cohen? Is that part of the fascination you have for the Mount?

Yosef Rabin: I did not know that. My last name was once Rabanovitch. Not a Cohen.

Judean Rose: When did you first go up to the Mount? How old were you? What did it feel like?

Yosef Rabin: The first time I ascended the Temple Mount, it was in 2004 and I was at the time 20 years-old learning in a Jerusalem yeshiva (seminary). I was horrified by the sight of Israeli police escorting Jews to ensure that they would not pray. The police were watching our every move and filming us the entire time. We received constant instructions: “Walk faster, don’t stand in once place, don’t sit down, and don’t move to the right or left.”

The police were not there to protect us, but rather to fulfill the instructions of the Muslim Waqf (religious authority) guards. I felt a mix of awe of God and fear of the police and the Muslim Waqf guards. During that ascent, I promised that I would not rest until Jewish rights were restored to our holiest place.

Judean Rose: I’ve noted that in your Facebook postings you are eager to show that Haredim are, in fact, permitted to ascend to the Temple Mount. Can you explain your reasoning, here?

Yosef Rabin: Ascent to the Temple Mount in the religious Zionist sector is quickly moving from the fringes and going mainstream, but still very fringe in the Haredi community. A picture of one Haredi on the Mount is worth more than 1,000 such photos of Religious Zionists, because with the former there is no political stigma attached. Every time a Religious Zionist goes to the Mount, people just see it sadly as a political statement or “Zionist activism.” When a Haredi goes to the Mount, on the other hand, it is seen in a more puritanical light.

Judean Rose: I have a confession to make: I’d love to ascend to the Temple Mount, but until Haredi rabbanim make it mainstream, I’m not comfortable with going ahead and actually doing this. Do some Haredi women go up there? How many would you say in an average month?

Yosef Rabin: This is exactly why I promote Haredi ascent to the Mount, people see them as “the real deal” more than other religious Jews. In 2009 I made a short video of Rabbi Yosef Elboim, head of Hatenua Lekinun HaMikdash (Movement for Temple Restoration) leading a small visit to the Mount. It made tremendous waves in the Haredi media, so much so, that Rabbi Elboim admitted to me that that one video equaled his decades of work in the field.

It really rocked the Haredi public and within a month, the first large visit of Haredim to the Mount (50 people) was organized. The police were stunned and the Haredim were denied entry, but now we see hundreds of Haredim ascending on a yearly basis. There may be individual Haredi women who ascend, but there are no known groups that I know of. There is a religious-Zionist group of women called “Women of the Mount,” who are very active.


Women of the Mount ascend the Temple Mount

Judean Rose: During Temple times, what sectors of the Jewish population would have been found on the Temple Mount on an average day and in what capacity?

Yosef Rabin: All of the Jewish people came to the Temple Mount. Those who were sprinkled with water-ash mix from the red heifer went into the Temple courtyard and those who were impure could ascend to the outer areas of the Temple Mount, the areas where we ascend today. Of course, on the three major biblical holidays, masses came from all over the country to a bring special sacrifice called the Chagiga.
Probably the biggest ascent of the year was on the eve of Passover, when everyone would come to sacrifice the Paschal Lamb in the Temple courtyard, one representative from every group that would be eating together on Passover evening.  

Judean Rose: Why don’t people want to ascend to the Temple Mount? Is it about being afraid to walk in the forbidden areas? Aren’t there some areas we’re sure about, as being safe? Can you outline the issue for us, please?

Yosef Rabin: There is a grave misconception that the entire Temple Mount is off limits, because we are impure from contact with the dead and do not have the ashes of the red heifer to purify ourselves. According to the Torah, one who has been in contact with a dead body is prohibited to enter into the Temple, but is permitted into the remainder of the Temple Mount. Jewish law is very clear, see Maimonides - Laws of the Chosen House chapters 6-7 and Laws of the Entering the Temple, Chapter 3.

As long as one knows the permitted and forbidden boundaries, entering the Temple Mount is the fulfillment of a holy commandment of “fearing the place of the Temple” and giving honor before God. Many Rabbis who forbid their adherents from ascending have no actual knowledge of the forbidden or permitted areas. Even the great Rabbi Ovadya Yosef [z”l, former Sephardi Chief Rabbi], who was very vocal in his opposition to ascending the Temple Mount, wrote in his book Yabia Omer the real reason for his opposition: there is no physical boundary currently present to prevent someone from accidentally crossing from the permitted to the forbidden zones, like there was in the time of the Temple.

It is for this reason that the first few times a Jew ascends to the Mount, he must be accompanied by one who knows the permitted and forbidden boundaries well, because the punishment for entering into the Temple itself is Karet or the cutting off of one’s soul from the Jewish Nation. There is much rabbinic discussion of what this means, but all understand it to be the worst spiritual punishment in the Torah.


Rabbi Shmuel Eliyahu, Rabbi of Safed blessing those ascending the Mount before they enter: "You represent the Jewish People."

Judean Rose: What is involved with ascending to the Temple Mount practically speaking? One needs to dip in the mikveh, right? And wear white, right? What else do we need to know from a halachic standpoint?

Yosef Rabin: Yes, a man who has had seminal emission must clean his entire body of all impurities and only then immerse in a mikveh (ritual waters). After the immersion he can enter the Temple Mount. One should check to find a male mikveh that is actually kosher for this immersion, because unlike the pre-Yom Kippur dunk this one is a biblical commandment. This is the only time when a man will make a bracha (blessing) before immersing in the mikveh.

A woman cannot ascend to the Temple Mount during her period or when she is a nidda (period of menstruation). After her nidda period, plus the clean day count, she must then clean her entire body and then immerse in a kosher mikveh. Additionally, a married woman who has been together with her husband (during her clean days), should wait a three-day period before ascending the Mount. She must immerse in the mikveh again and only then ascend to the Temple Mount. There is fierce debate if non-married women should immerse for the sake of ascending to the Temple Mount and a serious halachic authority should be consulted.

Non-leather shoes must be worn on the Mount by all, but there is no requirement to wear white.

Judean Rose: Many of us have seen the awful videos of Arabs rioting, throwing things, and yelling “Allahu Akbar” at Jews on the Mount. Is it dangerous to go up there?

Yosef Rabin: The police usually do a good job of securing the general area during the three hours a day Jews are even allowed on the Temple Mount. I have been there many dozens of times and was only hit by a rock one time, and thank God was not injured. Yes, almost every Jewish group has Arabs yelling at them Allahu Akbar and at times police have had to intervene. If the Arabs get rowdy enough the police will simply throw the Jews off the Mount in response to Muslim threats.

Judean Rose: There seems to be some kind of legal distinction between a Jew’s freedom of religion to pray on the Temple Mount and the ability of the police to maintain order. Can you explain the contradiction and how this works in practice? What happens if you get thirsty and need to take a drink? Can you make a bracha on your water or is that going to cause a riot?

Yosef Rabin: This is not a legal problem, but rather an issue of governmental policy. In 1967, after the Six-Day War, the Knesset (Legislative Branch) passed the “Safeguarding of the Holy Places Law,” which protected the rights of everyone to their holy places and even demanded 7 years jail time for preventing someone access to his holy site. The Israeli Government (Executive Branch), however, passed “Regulation 761” in contravention to the law passed by the Knesset: “A Jew wishing to pray at the Temple Mount should be re-directed to the Western Wall.” This sadly has become the law and the police cite it over and over again to defend themselves against lawsuits. The Israeli Supreme court has ruled that Jews have the right “in principle” to pray on the Mount, but defer the matter to Israeli police for “security measures”.

In terms of the water fountains, sometimes the police allow [Jews to drink] and sometimes they don’t, just do not make a bracha or you will be arrested. People have been arrested for simply citing a biblical verse in the context of a tour on the Mount.


Some 4 years of ago on Jerusalem Day. Yosef Rabin, together with a large group, actually prayed for about 20 minutes on the Temple Mount. All of them were banned from the site for a year, but World War III did not break out!

Judean Rose: Is it an awful thing that Arabs pray on the Temple Mount? They aren’t idolaters according to the Torah, right? So is it a profanation to allow them to have a mosque there?

Yosef Rabin: Technically, they are not idolaters, although the Muslims who control the Mount support the murder of Jews, so they cannot be Noachides either. Al Aqsa mosque is actually not even on the halachic Temple Mount and is in the Herodian additions, which do not have any special halachic status. The Dome of the Rock is sitting on the Holies of Holies, but what can we do about it? Nothing. However, because the building is not used for idolatry there would not be a problem to put up curtains on the entrances and for the Kohein Gadol (high priest) to enter on Yom Kippur and perform the service on the spot of the holies of holies.

Judean Rose: But we are ritually impure from contact with the dead, how can the High Priest or any Jew go into the area of the Temple? You mentioned before, we do not have the red heifer.

Yosef Rabin: This is true, but the Halacha is also clear that when the entire Jewish People are impure, we preform the Temple Service in its entirety in a state of impurity. However, personal sacrifices like a sin offering could not be brought today, only the service that relates to the entire Nation. An example of this is the Passover Sacrifice, which still must be offered in our time, even without the Temple standing. Of course, anyone who is not necessary for the service may not come into the Temple area in our times.

Theoretically, we could fulfill many parts of the Temple Service, while leaving the Muslim structures undisturbed. We would need permission from the Israeli Government to build an altar within the confines of the ancient Temple Courtyard, somewhere on the plaza east in front of the Dome of the Rock.

Judean Rose: What about the general comportment of Arabs on the Mount? We’ve seen boys playing soccer there. Is this a problem?

Arabs regularly desecrate the Temple Mount with soccer games, picnics and mass rallies calling for Jewish blood. It is truly horrible that our government has no respect for us or our religion and allow these hoodlums to control our holiest site. However, the People of Israel are truly at fault for not standing up.

Judean Rose: If the Temple Mount is the holiest place for Jews, why don’t Women of the Wall want to fight for the right to pray there, in your opinion?

Yosef Rabin: Of course the Temple Mount is the holiest place for the Jewish People. I can only guess that WOW is using the Western Wall as a monthly prop to try to import Reform Judaism into Israel, (WOW Chairwoman) Anat Hoffman was quoted on the BBC stating as such.




Judean Rose: Has anyone mapped out all the known places of relics from the Temple Mount? We know about the ancient beams that were found when they were renovating the mosque. What else is up there that we know about? Are we able to protect these items from further destruction/deterioration?



Ancient beams made from the wood of cypress and cedars of Lebanon trees, discarded as refuse in the Shaar Rachamim compound on the Temple Mount.

Ancient wooden beams set afire on the Temple Mount.

Yosef Rabin: Rabbi Shlomo Goren, Former Chief Rabbi of the IDF and the State of Israel, wrote a very comprehensive book called “The Temple Mount” replete with maps. We have a very good idea of where the Temple stood, there are still slight disagreements as to the angle, but the general area is known. Much of the remains of the Temple have been destroyed or illegally dumped into Kidron valley, but a half million artifacts have been recovered and cataloged with the help of nearly 200,000 volunteers since 2004. BTW those ancient beams have been left to rot under a tarmac.

Yosef Rabin in the place he loves most.
Judean Rose: Why is it so difficult to get Jews to care about the Temple Mount? What can we do to help?

Yosef Rabin: This is a question I ask myself over and over. The Temple was removed from our national reality, nearly 1948 years ago this coming Tisha B’av. Our Rabbis teach us that redemption comes “slowly, slowly, like the coming of dawn” and that baby steps are necessary.

The Prophet Isaiah: “And I will bring them to My Holy Mountain, and will make them happy in My house of prayer, their burnt offering and sacrifices will be welcome on My altar, for My house shall be called a house of prayer for all nations “(56:7) I heard from Rabbi Yosef Elboim a beautiful explanation of this verse. Found within this verse are four stages of the redemption of the Temple Mount.

And I will bring them to My Holy Mountain” – The first stage is for the Jewish People to simply gather on the Temple Mount. Maimonides, Laws of the Chosen House chapter 7:7 “Even though the Temple is today destroyed…we should only enter into the areas (of the Temple Mount) that are permitted”

And will make them happy in My house of prayer” – The second stage is for the Jewish People to renew Jewish Prayer on the Temple Mount. Maimonides, Book of Commandments Command 5“The 5th Commandment is to serve God…this is the commandment to pray …Serve Him through His Torah and Serve Him in His Temple, One should pray within the Temple or towards it”

“Their burnt offering and sacrifices will be welcome on My altar” – The Third Stage is the reconstruction of the altar without the standing Temple and the re-institution of national sacrifices. Maimonides, Laws of the Chosen House chapter 6:15: “Therefore we sacrifice all sacrifices, even though the Temple is not standing.”

My house shall be called a house of prayer for all nations” – The process culminates with the rebuilding of the Holy Temple, thus allowing all humanity to unite in worshiping the one true God. Maimonides, Laws of the Chosen House Chapter 1:1: “It is a positive commandment to build a House for God, for the sake of offering sacrifices and rejoicing in it three times a year – as it says “Build for Me a Temple" (exodus: 25:8).

This was the same way that Ezra and Nehemiah rebuilt the second Temple. They first ascended, then they built an altar and then years later actually rebuilt the Temple. Just like the State of Israel was built with the help of the Almighty via active and political Zionism and did not fall down from the sky; The [Third] Temple will also not fall from the sky, and we must be as active as possible, until we or our children, grandchildren or great grandchildren can complete the great task. It is not incumbent upon you to finish the task, but neither are you free to absolve yourself from it” (Ethics of Our Father 2:16). Everyone is encouraged to donate whatever sum they can, to help our movement continue on the slow and sure path of restoring our days as old. 




We have lots of ideas, but we need more resources to be even more effective. Please donate today to help get the message out and to help defend Israel.

Tuesday, February 21, 2017



I can’t believe it’s been twenty years.

I remember it like it was yesterday. It’s not the day itself I remember, just one vivid scene that forever changed me.

I was in 10th grade. Recess. Suddenly the school sound system was broadcasting the news.

They never did that. Sometimes they played music. Usually it was used just to sound the recess bell. Never the news.

Israeli schools are loud. Israelis in general are loud, boisterous, passionate, excitable… Younger Israelis are generally noisier than grown-ups. Israeli schools, because they are made from concrete and don’t have carpeting or furniture that absorbs sound, can be extremely noisy during recess.

Not this time.

There was dead silence. The moment the news began every student froze on the spot. A silent scattering of statues, everyone was listening intently to the report.

I had moved to Israel the year before. At first, I didn’t understand what was happening. I didn’t catch the beginning of the news flash.

And then I heard the names.

Name after name after name. Oh, my God. A wave of horror swept over me. When will the list stop? How many names will they read?

Everyone was utterly silent. Listening.

73 names.

There had been a terrible helicopter crash. Two IDF troop-carrying helicopters collided mid-air, causing them to crash and kill all the soldiers who had been on-board. 73 soldiers died in the blink of an eye.

I was the outsider, looking in on something I couldn’t completely comprehend. I didn’t have a brother, friend or father in the army. Everyone else did.

I was listening to news that was happening to people I did not know. Everyone else was petrified, listening, praying not to hear the name of someone they knew and loved. 

No one moved until the list was completed. Near the end of the recitation one girl burst in to tears and ran to the school’s pay-phone (no one had cell phones then, it was 1997). I remember watching her crying in to the phone and not knowing what to do with myself. What could I do?

That was the moment I understood the interconnectivity of Israelis. There is a bond unlike anywhere else in the world. Everyone knows someone who knows someone. If in America there are six degrees of separation, in Israel there are three (at most). Often this is a good thing. At other times, it is painful beyond belief.

In Israel, there is no such thing as someone else’s pain. It always comes back to us, it’s always connected.  

This is what it means to be a family.

That moment, 20 years ago, changed my life. In my childhood, in America, I learned the image of the “rugged individual.” I didn’t truly understand the idea of belonging to a Nation. Until that moment I understood with my head but not with my heart.

The idea of “E pluribus unum” became real to me only after living in Israel.

We are the many who have gathered from the four corners of the earth to live our oneness. One family, each member strikingly different from the other but all connected by an unbreakable bond. 

This is Israel.
***************
These are the names of the soldiers who died in the 1997 helicopter disaster.

73 families ripped apart. Parents who grew older without their children, watching the friends of their children grow up and create families where they are left with only memories. Siblings missing their brother. Friends missing that special person who understood them so well. Women who had to find other men to love… Each death is not the death of one but the death of a world. 

Lt. Shai Abukasis, 22, of Mikhmoret
Sgt. Itai Adler, 19, of Ra'anana
St.-Sgt. Avraham Afner, 21, of Kiryat Tiv'on
St.-Sgt. Idan Alper, 20, of Bat Yam
St.-Sgt. Avner Alter, 20, of Ashdot Ya'akov Ihud
St.-Sgt. Yonatan Amadi, 20, of Ma'ale Adumim
Sgt. 1st Cl. Saguy Arazi, 22, of Kfar Yona
St.-Sgt. Ran Arman, 20, of Ra'anana
St.-Sgt. Emil Azoulai, 20, of Ashkelon
Lt. Alon Babayan, 21, of Givat Ze'ev
St.-Sgt. Rafi Balalti, 20, of Migdal HaEmek
1st Sgt. Hussein Bashir, 28, of Beit Zarzir
St.-Sgt. Nir Ben-Haim, 20, of Yifat
Lt. Kobi Ben-Shem, 20, of Ramat HaSharon
Lt. Saguy Berkovitz, 21, of Alfei Menashe
1st Sgt. Maj. Paul Bivas, 26, of Ashdod
Lt. Dotan Cohen, 21, of Hadera
Maj. Yirmi Cohen, 23, of Rosh Ha'ayin
St.-Sgt. Assaf Dahan, 19, of Jerusalem
Maj. (Res.) Yasys Eden, 44, of Ramat HaSharon
Lt. Gil Eisen, 21, of Ness Ziona
Sgt. Noam Etzioni, 20, of Megadim
Sgt. Menachem Feldman, 20, of Haifa
Sgt. Moleto Gideon, 21, of Lod
Sgt. Avishai Gidron, 19, of Kiryat Motzkin
Sgt. 1st Cl. Tamir Glazer, 24, of Holon
St.-Sgt. Aviv Golan, 24, of Beit Yosef
Sgt. Tomer Goldberg, 19, of Dishon
St.-Sgt. Aviv Gonen, 20, of Petah Tikva
St.-Sgt. Micha Gottlieb, 20, of Tel Aviv
Maj. Ronen Halfon, 35, of Tiberias
Sgt. Alejandro Hoffman, 19, of Misgav Am
Maj. Yisrael Hushni, 34, of Tel Aviv
St.-Sgt. Shahar Kasus, 20, of Alfei Menashe
St.-Sgt. Michael Katz, 20, of Mitzpe Netofa
Sgt. Fadi Kazamel, 19, of Beit Jann
Sgt. Tomer Kedar, 21, of Negba
St.-Sgt. Tom Kita'in, 20, of Neve Shalom
St.-Sgt. Ilan Lanchitski, 20, of Haifa
Lt. Dvir Lanir, 21, of Moledet
Capt. Avishai Levy, 27, of Tel Aviv
St.-Sgt. Shilo Levy, 21, Karnei Shomron
St.-Sgt. Nadav Lishinski, 20, of Sde Avraham
Sgt. 1st Cl. Eitan Maman, 25, of Beersheba
Sgt. 1st Cl. Gal Meisels, 24, of Kiryat Ata
Sgt. Yaakov Melamed, 20, of Petah Tikva
Capt. Dr. Vadim Melnick, 34, of Safed
Sgt. Vladislav Michaelov, 22, Tel Aviv
Sgt. Idan Minker, 20, of Nir Yitzhak
St.-Sgt. Gilad Mishaiker, 20, of Jerusalem
St.-Sgt. Gilad Moshel, 20, of Tel Aviv
Lt.-Col. Moshe Mualem, 31, of Beersheba
St.-Sgt. Haran Eliezer Parnas, 20, Herzliya
Lt. Eren Hai Peretz, 21, of Deganya Alef
Sgt. Vitali Pesahov, 19, of Acre
Cpl. Shlomo Pizuati, 19, of Tiberias
Sgt. Gidon Posner, 22, of Tel Aviv
Capt. Dr. Vitaly Radinsky, 33, of Or Akiva
Sgt. 1st Cl. Kamal Rahal, 27, of Beit Zarzir
Sgt. Shahar Rosenberg, 19, of Ness Ziona
St.-Sgt. Assaf Rotenberg, 20, of Tel Aviv
Sgt. Moshe Saban, 19, of Hod HaSharon
Lt. Nir Schreibman, 20 of Kfar Saba
St.-Sgt. Itamar Shai, 20, of Jerusalem
St.-Sgt. Omer Shalit, 19, of Jerusalem
Sgt. Yiftach Shlapobersky, 20, Hod HaSharon
St.-Sgt. Gil Sharabi, 20, of Rehovot
St.-Sgt. Tsafrir Sharoni, 22, of Netanya
St.-Sgt. Tsafrir Shoval, 22, of Bar'am
Lt. Erez Shtark, 21, of Kiryat Ata
St.-Sgt. Assaf Siboni, 20, Nir Am
Sgt. Yaron Tsofiof, 20, of Tel Aviv

Sgt. Dani Zahavi, 19, of Haifa  



We have lots of ideas, but we need more resources to be even more effective. Please donate today to help get the message out and to help defend Israel.

Monday, February 20, 2017

The pro-Israel community has long struggled against media coverage that distorts or misrepresents facts. While these efforts are often dismissed as partisan “hasbara” designed to make Israel look better than it deserves, fact-checking has become rather fashionable during the divisive US election campaign that ended – to the surprise and shock of the unsuspecting mainstream media – with Donald Trump’s victory. Yet, in these times of Trump, fact-checking is usually employed to discredit the new US administration and its supporters. I don’t really have a problem with this, but at the same time, I can’t help noticing that what is now widely called “the resistance” to the Trump administration is hardly ever thought worthy of fact-checking, no matter how bizarre the claims and “narratives” are that emanate from associated groups or individuals.

A recent Washington Post article on Linda Sarsour is a good case in point: it’s an amazing puff piece that presents Sarsour as “one of the highest-profile Muslim American activists in the country” who is bravely enduring “an onslaught of personal attacks through social media and conservative news outlets.” According to the paper’s “reporter” Michael Alison Chandler, the ambitious Sarsour – who once wanted to become “the first hijabi mayor of New York City” and who now plans to write a book and is even contemplating “a possible bid for Congress” –  is being smeared by “critics [who] have attempted to tie her to terrorist groups, called her anti-Semitic and accused her of infiltrating the liberal movement.”

Needless to say, the people who vilify poor Linda Sarsour so unfairly in turn richly deserve to be vilified by Sarsour and her supporters. Thus, Chandler allows Sarsour to airily dismiss a vile tweet she posted in 2011 fantasizing about Brigitte Gabriel and Ayaan Hirsi Ali “asking 4 an a$$ whippin’” and expressing the “wish” to “take their vaginas away” because “they don’t deserve to be women.” All Sarsour has to do now is to shrug off her vicious outburst as “stupid” and to dismiss it as simply a reflection of her being “a brash New Yorker.” An open threat against Brigitte Gabriel also posted by Sarsour remained unmentioned; likewise, her declaration that “White women” were regrettably slow to understand “that we do not need to be saved by them” was politely ignored now that Sarsour so obviously enjoys the fawning praise heaped on her by a whole lot of “White women.” And it is surely safer to admire Sarsour, given that she recently asked her fans to pray in support of her and then re-tweeted one of the heartfelt prayers: “#IPrayForLinda May God fortify her and strike down her enemies where they stand.”



While Washington Post readers weren’t told anything about fervent prayers to “strike down” Linda Sarsour’s “enemies,” they did learn that Sarsour regards Gabriel and Hirsi Ali as “notorious Islamophobes who are working for the right wing” and that the Southern Poverty Law Center largely agrees with Sarsour’s views, considering her a victim of bigoted efforts to vilify American Muslims.
Since obviously only truly terrible people would criticize Sarsour, the Washington Post’s Chandler apparently saw no reason to explain that “many” of Sarsour’s “accusers” suspect her of advocating Sharia because she posted several tweets extolling the supposed virtues of Islamic Sharia law. And even though a Snopes article published almost two weeks before Chandler’s piece shows that Sarsour avoided a direct answer to the question if she would ever “vote for Sharia Law in the United States,” Sarsour is simply allowed to claim that “she does not think sharia law should supplant American laws.” Washington Post readers are assured that just “like many other U.S. Muslims,” Sarsour supposedly regards Sharia only “as a guide” for her “private religious practice:” “I don’t eat pork […] “I don’t drink alcohol. I pray five times a day.” Later on Sarsour acknowledges that “[t]here are Muslims and regimes that oppress women,” but she immediately adds: “I believe that my religion is an empowering religion […] I wear hijab by choice.”

Of course, Sarsour can wear her hijab by choice only because she is living in a country that is not governed by Sharia law. In countries where Sharia law is enforced, not even feminist Swedish politicians dare to choose not to wear a hijab. And in countries where Sharia law is enforced, even non-Muslims don’t have necessarily the choice to eat pork, while Muslims who might fancy a drink risk heavy lashing or even a death sentence.

Sarsour may regard Sharia law only “as a guide” for her “private religious practice,” but she knows full well that in countries where it is enforced, it results in horrendous oppression and human rights violations. So why not hold Sarsour to her own standards: since she believes that “silence makes you complicit,” she should be expected to speak out about the enforced social conformity and the cruelty that result when Sharia is actually the law of the land.

Yet, Sarsour has even claimed that “shariah law is reasonable and once u read into the details it makes a lot of sense.”




Since Sarsour often emphasizes her Palestinian identity, it is noteworthy that the Palestinians are also very positive about Sharia. The graphic below, based on surveys by Pew, illustrates what Sharia means for Palestinians – maybe the next “reporter” tempted to write a puff piece on Sarsour can ask her if she considers this “reasonable”?



I could also think of several questions that reporters who are eager to show a skeptical public that the media can be trusted to report impartially could ask Linda Sarsour.
Sarsour has suggested that America is a nation built on “Genocide & slavery,” a comment she later claimed was “in response to a bigot who told me Islam is evil.” So what does Sarsour think about the countless horrors perpetrated in the wars of conquest that spread Islam far beyond its birthplace on the Arabian Peninsula? And what about the fact that Sharia law justifies slavery, in particular the enslavement of prisoners taken in jihad?



Sarsour has also opined that “Nothing is creepier than Zionism.” In other words, as far as Sarsour is concerned, nothing is creepier than the Jewish people’s right to self-determination. Given Sarsours’s frequent emphasis on her Palestinians identity and the fact that she has relatives and family friends who were (or still are) serving lengthy prison sentences in Israel – likely for involvement in terrorist activity –, and given that her brother-in-law was reportedly serving a 12-year sentence because he was “accused of being an activist in the Hamas,” it would be interesting to know how Sarsour feels about Hamas: is the Islamist terror group, with its notorious genocidal fascist charter, a lot less “creepy” than Zionism?



There also has been some speculation about Sarsour’s potential family connections to the known Hamas supporters Salah and Jamil Sarsour – perhaps an enterprising reporter could clear up if there is anything to these speculations?

Moreover, since Linda Sarsour has skillfully used her family to shape her public image, it is certainly legitimate to ask some related questions. So we know that her brother-in-law was sentenced to prison in Israel as a Hamas member or supporter; we also know that in 2004, “her Palestinian husband, after seven years in America, faced deportation proceedings.” Was her husband also suspected of being a Hamas supporter or member, and was he actually deported from the US?

If Sarsour’s husband had spent seven years in America by 2004, he arrived there in 1997. Sarsour, who was born in 1980, was then 17 years old, and we know from an Al Jazeera profile of her that, “At 17, still in high school, she had an arranged marriage and began wearing hijab.” This means that she “had” – or perhaps was forced into – an arranged marriage with a Palestinian who had just arrived in the US. We also know from a 2005 article (archived here) that Sarsour “met her future husband when he paid her family a visit with his extended family in tow and a $10,000 dowry.” The article identifies Sarsour’s husband as Maher Judh from the West Bank town of El-bireh and says that he works in a grocery store in Brooklyn, indicating that he was apparently not deported in 2004.

In the 2005 article, Sarsour describes her family as a “traditional Muslim family whose conservative ways were less a result of religion, but more about maintaining a good standing in the community.” She also seems to see nothing wrong with her arranged marriage at 17, telling the reporter back then: “I am 25 years old, married with three kids, and I was married in an arranged marriage, and that happened right here in Brooklyn […] People always say, ‘What! Most people don’t get married until they are 30,’ and I say ‘not my people.’”

So apparently, Sarsour felt at the time that it re-affirmed her Palestinian identity to get married so young in an arranged marriage. She also seems to have no misgivings about the fact – which she relates in the Al Jazeera profile – that her parents sent her to a terrible high school and deprived her of the chance to attend a program for gifted students because she “was the first [child of seven] in the family” and for her parents, “it wasn’t about better. It was about proximity to the house.” However, as noted in a glowing New York Times profile from 2015, Sarsour “grew up helping her mother babysit and shop.”

A girl growing up in America at the end of the 20th century being denied educational advancement by her parents, who instead use her as a babysitter for her six siblings and then marry her off at the earliest possible time would presumably be regarded by most of Sarsour’s feminist admirers as a very tragic case. As much as I disagree with Sarsour’s politics, I think one can only admire her for the tenaciousness with which she avoided her apparent destiny of a life restricted to being an obedient wife who would bear her husband children and perhaps eventually find some sort of low-level job. At the same time, I think Sarsour has good reason to “sometimes … feel duplicitous” because of what she reportedly called “her internal quest to prove she can be both progressive and traditional.”


The Washington Post identifies the author of the puff piece on Sarsour as a “reporter” who “writes about families, gender and religion.” Sarsour is certainly a fascinating person to write about for someone focusing on these issues – pity that Michael Alison Chandler took the easy way out and chose to simply add to the growing list of tributes that are ultimately only slightly more sophisticated versions of the “prayer” Sarsour liked so much: “#IPrayForLinda May God fortify her and strike down her enemies where they stand.”  



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This blog may be a labor of love for me, but it takes a lot of effort, time and money. For over 14 years and 30,000 articles I have been providing accurate, original news that would have remained unnoticed. I've written hundreds of scoops and sometimes my reporting ends up making a real difference. I appreciate any donations you can give to keep this blog going.

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