He commands us to smile (Forest Rain)

Liron and Rakefet Eldor

By Forest Rain

He stood by the door, slightly bent over as if recovering from a punch to the gut and yet he had a smile on his face, warm words, and a hug for friends and family.

I’ve been to many Shiva houses. This is the first time I’ve seen a grief-stricken father greet those who came to pay their respects in this way.

For those unfamiliar with the Jewish mourning tradition of Sitting Shiva, this is a structured way for the bereaved family to express their grief and the community to support the family. Immediately following the funeral, for seven days (shiva means seven in Hebrew), the immediate family resides (usually) in the home of the deceased. Extended family, friends, and members of the community come without invitation to offer condolences, share memories of the deceased, and provide emotional support. The endless stream of people provides a stabilizing distraction for the mourners, helping to pass the initial shock of bereavement. Mourners are not supposed to cook or serve food, so it is customary for guests to bring food, making sure the bereaved family doesn’t have to think about themselves or their guests.

People differ in their adherence to the Jewish traditional guidelines for the Shiva. Secular Jews do not necessarily conduct the proscribed prayers, wear a kippah (yarmulke), or stick to the guidelines regarding clothes, etc. Tradition dictates that the mourners sit on low chairs or even pillows on the floor, indicating their grief and differentiating them from everyone else.

Mourners often remain sitting on their low chairs while the people around them come and go, replaced by new visitors. Sometimes the bereaved move around to visit with the different people who came to comfort them.

Liron Eldor is the first father I’ve seen greeting visitors by the door with a smile and a hug.

Liron’s son, Sergeant First Class Adi Eldor was killed in Gaza. He was just 21 years old. 

We don’t know the Eldor family personally, but they live in Haifa and their son’s life journey is very similar to that of our son – same school, both were in the Scouts and they were in the same elite army unit. Israel is a nation of people who are family who haven’t met yet so, it isn’t uncommon for people to pay condolences to families they don’t personally know. What is the difference between their son and ours?

The Eldor family is the cream of Haifa society. Well-to-do, sophisticated, intelligent, and kind people. Liron and Rakefet, Adi’s mother, are both young, attractive, and charismatic. Their beautiful home was overflowing with friends, family, and an enormous amount of food.

After we introduced ourselves to Liron I asked him the question I usually ask bereaved parents: “Tell me something about Adi so that I can remember him, although I didn’t know him.”

(It’s rather horrifying that we meet so many bereaved parents that I have an arsenal of questions to ask)

Liron smiled and told me: “You know the saying; In death, they command us to live?”

“Yes, of course” I nodded.

“In death, Adi commands us to smile. He always had smiles for everyone. There are good things and negative things to see in people. Adi always knew how to see the good and he used that to bring people together. That’s Adi.”

Then he told us about donations of food the family planned to give with an image of Adi smiling, to spread warmth and smiles to other people.

Liron’s choice of how he greeted the people who came to comfort him wasn’t random. It was a simple yet powerful way to honor his son’s legacy. Brokenhearted but still standing, he had smiles to share.

Wow. 

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Buy the EoZ book, PROTOCOLS: Exposing Modern Antisemitism  today at Amazon! Or order from your favorite bookseller, using ISBN 9798985708424.  Read all about it here!

 

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What should I do with the treasure trove of Islamic thought sitting hidden in a folder in my Gmail account (Judean Rose)

Disclaimer: the views expressed here are solely those of the author, weekly Judean Rose columnist Varda Meyers Epstein.

Robert Werdine was my friend. He was also a Rhodes Scholar, historian, ardent defender of Israel, serious music lover, and a devout Muslim. Robert died too soon from complications of diabetes and was buried as a Catholic, his father’s faith, but he was undeniably Muslim. Through our three years’ worth of correspondence, Robert left me with a wealth of material on Islamic thought as it relates to Jews, Judaism, and Israel. These were subjects he cared about and wrote about, but never published.

More than once, Robert alluded to being in bad odor with certain family members over his stance on Israel. He detailed an incident in which his uncle, a member of Hamas, roughed him up when he found out that Robert was writing blogs at the Times of Israel, an Israeli publication. Which is actually how I met Robert. We were both blogging there in 2012, the year that TOI was launched.

Robert also mentioned that his mother was afraid for him to say in his blogs that he was a Muslim. She didn’t know what, if any repercussions there would be for him, and for the family as a whole. After some back and forth, Robert’s mom came to see it his way, and agreed that he should no longer hide his Muslim identity or his strong affection for Israel.

Since Robert died in 2017, I haven’t known what to do with the prodigious material he sent me—brilliant material, meticulously researched. These papers should be published. And I believe that is why he sent them to me. He knew he wasn’t going to live much longer. I think he hoped I would do something with his work after he died. Yet, all this time I haven’t been sure I should.

I’m still not certain it’s the right thing to do—publish Robert’s work without his permission. But I think he felt he could not publish them while he was alive, and trusted that I would make a decision about what to do with his work, and that it would be the right decision. All of this came to mind last week during an exchange yet another confrontational antisemite on Quora.

The exchange began, as usual, with a “question” I was asked to answer, that as per usual, was some gross, not-so-thinly-veiled anti-Israel propaganda: “Why does Israel have the right to occupy land where the Palestinian have lived?”

This was my answer:

“Israel builds in very few areas where Arabs once might have lived. In those areas, the Arabs either left of their own volition, at the behest of Arab leaders preparing to extinguish the fledgling Jewish State, or the land was retaken during the course of a defensive war, in which case, it is perfectly legal.

“The Jews expelled from Arab countries were absorbed by tiny Israel, while the 22 Arab states in the region, which cover an enormous breadth of territory, refuse to absorb the Arabs who fled Israel in 1948 (and their descendants).

“It is normal for a population exchange to occur as a result of war. The shameful aspect of what happened here is the Arab refusal to absorb and resettle their brethren.”

Naturally, there were confrontational comments. One particular commenter, Esmailjee Mohamed Ali, wrote: "How can there be Judhas or Jews in Palestine when they lived in Europe for 2000 years from the time they were created by the Romans in 69BC.

It was from EUROPE after the Second World War, 5MILLION Judhas or Jews migrated to America and another 6Million was brought landed and in PALESTINE by the British Empire and the League of Nations on creating the State of Israel in 1948CE."

“It was the British Empire that was upto [sic] all the mischief. Allah wiped out the British Empire because of all their cruel acts. Today, unfortunately the PALESTINIAN PEOPLE are suffering at the hands of the Poor downtrodden criminals who came from EUROPE because of the British Empire.”

Well, I couldn’t leave that alone, now could I? So I said, “Funny, because that’s not what the Quran says,” said I thinking of all the Quranic references to the Bani Isra'il.

To which Mr. Ali took umbrage, responding, “Do not misinterpret the QURAN.”

As I am so often wont to do in these situations, I went to my Robert Werdine gmail folder to see what my dear late friend had to say on the subject. I was looking for what he had said about Muslims living under non-Muslim rule. Because really—why did the Arabs have to kick up a fuss over the establishment of the Jewish State or be in denial about Jewish history, detailed in their own holy book? The Arabs didn’t have to leave, nor did they have to “suffer” at the hands of the Jews. They could have—and would have—been perfectly happy and prosperous under Jewish rule. Instead they were turned—by their own people—into perpetual refugees, filled with hate and blood lust. And their own people didn’t—and don’t—want them.

None of this had anything to do with the British Empire. Nor did it relate to “downtrodden criminals from Europe” supposedly brought to the region by the Brits.

It had to do with Muslims who are ignorant of what their own holy books and commentators have to say on the subject. They should have stayed. They would have been free to practice their religion under the Jews, and they would have led happy, content lives. And of course, the October 7^th Massacre would never have happened. What happened on that Black Sabbath was in fact, proscribed by Islam. 

I found what I needed in my “Robert Werdine” email treasure chest, and it was so perfect I quoted it word for word. I knew Robert would forgive me. And I never heard a peep back from Mr. Ali:

The Shafi’i jurist, Imam Abu Zakariyya Muhyi ’l-Din al-Nawawi (1233–1277) [stated]: 

If a Muslim is able to declare his Islam openly and living therein (in a land dominated by non-Muslims), it is better for him to do so […] because by this it becomes Dar al-Islam […] (Al-Nawawi, rawda al-talibin, (Beirut: Dar ibn Hazm, 2002), p. 1819)

Al Nawawi also stated: 

Where a Muslim is able to protect and isolate himself, even if he is not able to proselytize and engage in combat, in such case it would be incumbent upon him to remain in this place and not emigrate. For such a place, by the fact that he is able to isolate himself, has become a dar Islam. 

The opinions of al-Ramli, al-Mawardi, and al-Nawawi are all consistent with prophetic practice in the authentic Sunnah. Two Hadiths, one from Sahih Bukhari and one from Sahih Muslim attest that the prophet would refuse to attack any non-Muslim entity that allowed for the practice of the Muslim religion by Muslims living there. Here is the Sahih Bukhari (Vol. 4, Book 52, #193):  

Narrated Anas: Whenever Allah's Apostle attacked some people, he would never attack them till it was dawn. If he heard the Adhan (i.e. call for prayer) he would delay the fight, and if he did not hear the Adhan, he would attack them immediately after dawn.

Nawawi interprets the Hadiths as follows: 

In this narration is evidence that verily the call to prayer forbids invading (yamna‘) a people of that area, and this is an evidence of their Islam.

This is only one tiny fragment of the material I have from Robert. Some of what he wrote was conversational. I’d ask him questions, and he’d answer. Once, for example, I asked him how he felt about the word “Palestinian.” What did he, Robert, call the Arabs who call themselves “Palestinians?”

He wrote (May 20 2015), I'm not sure what to call the you-know-who. I call them the Nowhere People; they came out of nowhere and they're going nowhere, fast. I generally call them Palestinian, but I don't remember my grandfather using that term. He just called them Arabs and refugees. Probably "Arabs" is the best word to use, or Palestinian Arabs, either word refers to the customarily delusional, intransigent, and recklessly self-destructive people whose leaders will continue the long, hard slog of hatred, violence, and deligitimization of a people who have shown them more humanity and compassion than their own Arab brethren ever will.”

Robert knew more than Islam. He ate, drank, and slept history and was always happy to share with me what he learned—especially if there were a reference to Jews. On May 27, 2015, he wrote: “I’m reading Robert Markus’ biography of Pope Gregory the Great. What a phenomenal figure. He was almost an exact contemporary of Muhammad. Gregory was a great reformer. He also wrote a six-volume commentary on the Book of Job. He was a font of wisdom, integrity and able statesmanship. The chants that bear his name are the earliest music that is written on record, and still haunts the monasteries of Italy, France, and Germany. 

“He was also a great protector of the Jews. He forbade compulsory conversions that so many popes of the past had winked at, and he gave them full rights of equal citizenship—a true rarity in that day and age.  When he learned that the bishops in Palermo had appropriated the local synagogues, he ordered that they make full restitution. Here is what he wrote to the Bishop of Naples: 

“‘Do not allow the Jews to be molested in the performance of their services. Let them have full liberty to observe and keep all of their festivals and holydays, as both they and their fathers have done for so long.’’’ 

Sometimes I wonder what Robert would have said about October 7. I know that he was sickened by Arab terror against the Jews of Israel. On September 23, 2015, he wrote, “My mother and I were talking the other day about what it would be like for us to know that there were people living in the next county who would be only too happy to murder us and all our love ones, and celebrate the deed afterward. How could we help from hating such people filled to the brim with such murderous hatred for us, and who demonstrate such hatred in deeds of unmentionable horror day after day? It's a sobering thought to ponder.”

By ironic coincidence, on October 7 (!), 2015, he wrote to me in regard to the murder of Eitam and Na’ama Henkin in front of their four young children, one of them a four-month-old infant, only one week earlier:

“Your feelings after that savage murder of the Henkin couple are completely natural and understandable. How would any person of conscience react to an act of such naked savagery?  In their evil they could not be more evil. The hysterical glee that they show whenever Jewish blood is shed is like something out of a nightmare. The one, true accomplishment of the Palestinians is their societal normalizing of savagery as a virtue to be emulated: murders celebrated like weddings, streets and village squares named after suicide bombers. These people are sick. I mean: SICK.” 

People don’t believe me when I tell them about Robert. They think he was pulling the wool over my eyes. That he was deceiving me the Sunni Muslim way with taqiyya. But I know that he was good. And that the scholarly works he sent me should be read by more than one person (me). Robert did not agree with the idea of “Islamic reform.” He believed that the violent, Jew-hating form of Islam all too unfortunately practiced by too many Muslims the world over, was due to ignorance of what Islam actually preached.

Believe me, I am no apologist for Islam. But I also know that it doesn’t need to be practiced in the violent way it is currently practiced by way too many ignorant, blood-crazed cretins. I would like others to at least see and wrestle with Robert Werdine’s writings.

So now I would like to ask a question of regular readers of this column: would you like to read these works sitting and doing nothing in a Gmail folder? Shall I post them here in weeks to come? Or should I keep them hidden, buried away where no one will ever see them?

I honestly seek your opinions. And I’m guessing that Robert, were he able to weigh in, would hope that you’d view the idea with favor. He wished with all his heart that more people were open to the Islam that he saw and believed—an Islam that respects the rights of people of all faiths to follow their beliefs in peace.

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Buy the EoZ book, PROTOCOLS: Exposing Modern Antisemitism  today at Amazon! Or order from your favorite bookseller, using ISBN 9798985708424.  Read all about it here!

 

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Poison Ivy League (Josh Namm)

Guest post by Josh Namm:

The Ivy Is Still Poison

We all remember the disastrous testimony of three presidents of the Ivy League when testifying before Congress at the end of last year about their schools’ dismal response to the recent, massive rise of campus antisemitism. Two of them, the University of Pennsylvania’s Liz Magill, and Harvard’s Claudine Gay, have since resigned. The primary reason was their uniquely repulsive remarks regarding the safety and status of Jews at their respective schools. Magill resigned quickly. Gay refused to resign, doing so only after repeated revelations about her total lack of qualifications for the post, and her tendency (some would say “need”) to plagiarize.

This followed weeks of antisemitic incidents on campuses across the nation, many occurring across the Ivy League. I wrote about it back in December.

I can’t help but think, based on what I’ve personally observed, that for most Americans it was the end of the issue. Or, at the very least, the perception is that the two sacrificial resignations (both Magill and Gay remain as faculty, both retaining HUGE salaries), must have been the beginning of an end to such open toleration of Jew hatred.

If that is what you think: you think wrong.

Every single day, there are reports of incidents against Jewish students at universities across America. But recently, there were two that really caught my eye. One is egregious, and the other is egregious, heinous, and a lot of other really negative adjectives.

The nation just celebrated another Martin Luther King Jr. Day. I’m old enough to remember one of my elementary school teachers playing the “I Have Dream” speech on vinyl during class (this was in the very old days, before vinyl had any kind of retro cache). It, literally, gave me chills. The ideas that this great man so charismatically espoused, like the idea that people should be judged by the content of their character, not their skin color, pierced my elementary school consciousness. That was true of the other lofty ideals the speech is correctly revered for.

Little did I know that decades later, in another century, a prestigious, elite university would be giving something called the “MLK Jr. Social Justice Award” to someone that hates Israel, and would absolutely judge me by my religion, ethnicity, and undoubtedly for the color of my skin.

In fact, in his speech, King expressed longing for the day when “God's children, black men and white men, Jews and Gentiles, Protestants and Catholics, will be able to join hands…”

So giving an award to an antisemite would seem to be the opposite of King’s message. That’s obvious.

At least it’s obvious if you have a functioning mind, capable of critical thought, and aren’t suffering the brain decaying condition known as “wokeness.” That condition robs you of any ability to be intellectually honest and substitutes any sense of honor, integrity, or aversion to hypocrisy, with a cultish devotion to its contradictory dictates. 

The University of Pennsylvania gave this award to a woman named Dorothy Roberts. She is a professor of sociology and law.

 

Dorothy Roberts (Wikimedia Commons)

The announcement for the event said that “The 23rd Annual Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Lecture in Social Justice proudly presents Dorothy Roberts as she reflects on the Civil Rights Act of 1964.” Among others, it was sponsored by the Center for Africana Studies and the Penn Program on Race, Science & Society.

You can guess the ideological leanings of the organizers.

Roberts, just 11 days after the Hamas massacres of 10/7, tweeted:

’Collective punishment of two million civilians, nearly half of them children, is a moral catastrophe to which current U.S. policy critically contributes.’ I was morally compelled to sign this US legal scholars’ letter.

What was this letter?

Signed by 178 members of the faculties of America’s law schools, it claimed that Israel was committing “internationally supported genocide,” referred to Israel as “an apartheid regime whose occupation is in clear violation of international law," claimed that Gazans "face genocide and ethnic cleansing,” and repeated the lie that the population of Gaza was being deprived of the “basic means of survival,” including water, food and electricity.”

Amazingly, this letter was written on October 16, 11 days before Israel’s ground offensive against Gaza began.

If you’re the kind of person who is fascinated by stupidity, you can read the full letter here. 

Previously, Roberts had expressed her support of the antisemitic Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions idiocy (BDS) movement (even if she can’t spell, see the link), and claimed that Jews are white because we supposedly all have power, or run the world, or the banks…or something.

The bottom line is that this obvious bigot hates Jews and shouldn’t have been allowed anywhere near anything with MLK’s name on it. Or be allowed near any classroom in the future.

Oh, and she opposes adoption because she thinks…wait for it… it’s “racist”!

Of course she does.

The entire thing was, as I said, egregious.

Another one is, also as promised, egregious and heinous.

Heinously disgusting.

Cornell University has a PhD student instructor named Alyiah Gonzales. I am sure that the irony, and cultural appropriation, of her first name escapes her completely.

This fine specimen of intersectionally driven achievement said recently that Israelis should "rot in the deepest darkest pits of hell.”

More recently, she cancelled her “English” class in “"race, writing, and power” (of course).

Why?

In her words it was: “in solidarity with collective calls for a Global Strike for Palestine.” She went on to say that she "mourn[s] the fact that all universities in Gaza have been destroyed or demolished by Israeli military forces." In lieu of class, she asked her students to write an essay on "the relationship between writing, power, and systems of oppression."

Blah, blah, blah. They all sound exactly the same.

This is the same Cornell at which a junior was arrested for posting messages saying that he was going to "bring an assault rifle to campus and shoot all you pig Jews." That was in October.

Another Cornell professor named Rusty Rickford, a history teacher, praised the Hamas massacre of Oct. 7, while saying that it was “exhilarating” and “energizing.”

Rickford was not formally punished, but instead “went on leave.”

Will the same thing happen to Gonzales? I would say no. She is higher up the DEI (diversity, equity, inclusion) hierarchy. I don’t think they will touch her. I hope that I am wrong.

In fact, the only recognition of Gonzales’ behavior came from the provost of Cornell, Michael Kotlikoff. He issued the usual weak, meaningless, jargon laden, uselessness saying “Canceling classes as a political call to action, or using one's role in instruction to promote a personal or political belief, diminishes our role as educators."

Once again, the statement has nothing to do with Jews, Israel or “hate speech,” and instead is about their own narcissism and fear that they will be pressured to go the Liz Magill route (again, she resigned but is still on salary, and teaching at the school).

Alyiah Gonzales (Cornell University English Department) - Of course she is holding a book by known Israel hater Toni Morrison. Resembling Little Richard does nothing to change her odiousness.

Even more concerning than her call to cancel class, and Cornell’s refusal to treat it as what it is: an attempt to draw her students into her own web of antisemitism, is the fact that Gonzales was ever hired in the first place, and wasn’t fired long before this point.

Just since Oct. 7 she has posted a series of deeply antisemitic posts. These include saying "Me, personally, I think the fuck ass settler state of Israel and all those complicit in genocide and occupation can rot in the deepest darkest pits of hell…”

Remember, this person is teaching English.

In November she said “If you've been silent and wallowing in ignorance … wake up and stand tf up, I will forever stand in solidarity with the Palestinian peoples—land back means LAND BACK, period. … WHERE IS YOUR RAGE? RESIST. RESIST. RESIST.”

Gonzales also has a history of posting antisemitic words/images on Instagram. Two examples, of many, are below.

In one she refers to the worst attacks on Jews since the Holocaust as “decolonization.” In the other, she posted an image of a Hamas paraglider, the type used on Oct. 7, and said “Freedom has only ever been achieved through resistance. Stand with the Palestinian resistance.”

I don’t know about you, but I am so sick of these little twerps referring to the mass murder of Jews as “resistance.” They are narcistic, arrogant, pretentious people playacting at adulthood.

According to the Washington Free Beacon, Gonzales’ Cornell bio claims that she is “dedicated to the queer, coalitional, and transformative possibilities of literature written by, for, and about Black womxn,” and her “research” is in "Black feminism," "Black womxn's literature," "queer theory," and "intersectionality studies."
 
Note the absurd, cultish, use of the letter “x” in women.

In her spare time, again according to her own bio, she likes to write “fantasy novels” and also write about herself in the third person. She says that she is “an unhinged zillenial who spends most of their time escaping into fantasy through both reading and writing,” and that “Iced Coffees, mean cats, and colorful hair make up the bulk of Alyiah's life.”

Most of “their” time. It's all so insufferable.

These are not intelligent people.

The only valid resistance here is forceful resistance to people like Roberts and Gonzales, their insanity, their bigotry, their dishonesty, and their ability to spread ideologically driven crap through our schools, turning kids across America into antisemitic, unthinking, ignorant members, not of a productive society, but of a dangerously obedient cult.

Never give in. Never give up.

Am Yisrael Chai. 

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Buy the EoZ book, PROTOCOLS: Exposing Modern Antisemitism  today at Amazon! Or order from your favorite bookseller, using ISBN 9798985708424.  Read all about it here!

 

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Antisemitism is personal—even when it’s only on Facebook (Judean Rose)

Disclaimer: the views expressed here are solely those of the author, weekly Judean Rose columnist Varda Meyers Epstein.

Antisemitism is personal. Like snowflakes—no wokeness intended—no two Jews experience antisemitism the same way. Even the same Jew will experience antisemitism differently when there are multiple incidents or when exposure to antisemitism is ongoing.

Social media antisemitism is probably the safest kind of antisemitism, because the antisemite hides behind a keyboard. An ugly comment, it must be acknowledged, is not the same as being beaten by gangs. Still, there is always the possibility that the online antisemite will doxx you, or use what you write to identify you to people who could do you real harm IRL (in real life).

The comments themselves range from brainless to so ugly that you gasp out loud from the shock of it. One particular antisemitic barb will make you giggle for its stupidity, while another will make you tremble, and your eyes well up with tears. Sometimes you feel a wry sense of the familiar. This is what it is. This is our lived experience, to be hated for false reasons or for no reasons at all.

Sometimes the hurt is compounded by the attitude of the people at the top. People like Mark Zuckerberg who has made his community standards such that horrific antisemitic comments and memes are left up, while our innocent pro-Israel memes and comments are removed when reported by Arabs and their supporters.

A pattern has developed wherein I report the offensive, antisemitic post and Facebook says no, it doesn’t violate its community standards. I then appeal where they allow it, and they say no again, and the vile antisemitic post stays up.

Here are some antisemitic comments and memes that I have reported over the past several weeks. Facebook has refused to take action:

 

In my personal experience of social media however, the worst offender in allowing antisemitic comments and online calls for genocide, is Quora. It’s all anti-Israel, antisemitic lies and propaganda posed as questions. Sure, you can report antisemitic questions and comments and they’ll be collapsed or deleted, but repeat offenders are never banned. I think about leaving or even muting Quora all the time, but I stay, mostly to encourage those still interested in learning the truth about the Jewish people and Israel.

Here’s a selection of 26 antisemitic Quora questions that have accumulated over the past 12 days and are awaiting my attention—for me to either reply or pass:

1.      With the utmost respect intended, how is it possible for so many average Israelis on sites as this to defend their state's ongoing assault on Gaza, when even such mainstream " Western " sources like Oxfam attest to its singular level of brutality?

2.      Why did Hamas commit terrorism against Israel which can annihilate itself entirely?

3.      Does Satan support Israel victory over the people of Palestine?

4.      Has Trump asked Netanyahu to cause maximum embarrassment for Biden, with Israel's assault on Gaza, by completely ignoring Biden's pleas for restraint?

5.      Would there have been more outcry against Israel's actions if any major Fortune 100 companies had been headquartered in Gaza?

6.      Would people who oppose Yemen's blockade of Israel-linked ships also have opposed the partisans who blew up Nazi train lines?

7.      Why is Palestine more pro-American and trustworthy than Israel?

8.      Are Israelis going to give the stolen land back to the Palestinians and stop their thieving ways?

9.      Why doesn't Israel just give back the land it won and pretend the war never happened and we get a 2 state solution?

10.   Why are Israelis basically flat out admitting to genocidal intent by calling approximately 1.15 million minors (including children) terrorists and "the enemy" when asked why Israel was withholding water, food and medicine from them if not genocide?

11.   It’s only a matter of time until our generation is elected to office, and the rogue terrorist state of Israel will cease to exist, but what can we do in the meantime to stop Israel's bloodbath?

12.   What is the reasoning behind Israel refusing to embed journalists to show the world Hamas is still aggressive and leaving the world to only see civilian suffering? [untrue]

13.   It was just last year that Israel was funding Hamas millions of dollars in cash and weapons. What happened that made Hamas attack the people that support them?

14.   Do you think Israel will rebuild Gaza for the Palestinians, or do you think they will just steal the land?

15.   Why does Africa love Hamas so much, should Israel start a war with them?

16.   Why do the Zionists in the social media persistently seek to dehumanize the Palestinians, despite having themselves been subjected to similar dehumanization tactics by Hitler that led to genocide against them?

17.   Why does America seem unable to influence or control Israel, while other countries supporting Palestine exert more control over the situation?

18.   Is Israel’s attack on Gaza legitimate?

19.   Why am I seeing so many Israeli propaganda posts in my feed?

20.   Polls show Israel has completely lost younger Americans with 74% or more disapproving of how it has handled the Hamas-Israel war. Has Netanyahu and his right wing government permanently damaged the US - Israel relationship or can it come back? [false]

21.   Why was the USA disturbed by the disruption of navigation in the Red Sea and not disturbed by genocidal crimes committed by Israel in Gaza, but rather supported it in that?

22.   Is the only way of stopping Israel's slaughter of Palestinian civilians in Gaza for ten [sic] USA to withdraw all support from Israel? If so, isn't it morally incumbent on them to do so?

23.   Why is Western media calling the Palestinian genocide a war, and censoring people in support of Palestine?

24.   Is Israel using artificial intelligence to deny humanity and wage war?

25.   Is someone who supports both Israel in Gaza and Russia in Ukraine a pawn of the Likud?

26.   Is it true that the Hamas attack on Israel on October 7th was relatively hilarious?

That last query was actually older, from early December 2023. I leave it in my inbox as a future reminder of a time when the world was once again overrun by masses of people rejoicing at Jewish suffering while too many watched on, indifferent. Atrocities are never hilarious. Good people know this. Yet Quora, as powerful as it is, with its 400 million active monthly users, leaves this question up on its website where it has sat now for seven weeks. Is Quora’s indifference to antisemitism evidence of malfeasance? Is Mark Zuckerberg’s refusal to ban evil antisemitic memes and comments, evidence of his malfeasance?

Which leads to another question: Are antisemitic evil, hate, and depravity still real if they exist only in the virtual halls of Quora and Facebook? The answer depends on your personal experience of antisemitism. One Jew will laugh off an antisemitic comment, or block it from their consciousness, while others may feel hurt or anger. But no matter how a Jew experiences antisemitism, some damage is done, even if the “damage” consists of absorbing the bitter lesson that not all, or even most people are good.  

It’s a lesson that Jews have been forced to learn and relearn over millennia, a lesson that perhaps even Anne Frank was forced to learn in the end. We’ll never know, because Anne Frank was murdered before she could tell us, because she was a Jew.

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Buy the EoZ book, PROTOCOLS: Exposing Modern Antisemitism  today at Amazon! Or order from your favorite bookseller, using ISBN 9798985708424.  Read all about it here!

 

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The candle against Hamas' darkness (Forest Rain)

By Forest Rain

I stood where he stood, trying to imagine what it was like. How he made the decisions he made. How he felt.

I couldn’t.

Aner Shapira deliberately placed himself between the murderous terrorists outside and some 30 people, friends, and strangers. Knowingly, mindfully, he chose to be their shield against death.

How do you make a choice like that?

Aner Shapira, along with his friend Hersh Goldberg-Polin, attended the Nova Music Festival. A fighter in the Nahal reconnaissance unit on leave, Aner loved music and simply wanted to enjoy himself – like so many others.

The Hamas invasion began under the cover of a missile bombardment. The Nova festival was a rave, outside and with no place to take cover from missiles, let alone a hoard of blood thirsty murderers. Aner, Hersh and others left the festival site and took cover in a “migunit,” a mini-shelter set up in places where it’s not possible to reach a bomb shelter in the 15 seconds between when missiles are launched from Gaza and they slam into Israeli border communities.

 

The tiny shelter, not much larger than the bus stop next to it, wasn’t designed to protect people from terrorists with machine guns, RPGs, and grenades.

When he understood what was happening Aner placed himself at the entrance of the shelter, pushing everyone else behind him. Those that survived reported that he told them what he was going to do and how to continue if he would be killed. 

One of the people huddled behind him took a photo in case no one would survive to tell the story.

This is what heroism looks like.

A car camera on a vehicle stopped outside the shelter continued to record, giving a full picture of what happened.

A terrorist throws a grenade into the shelter. He expects it to or at least wound everyone inside.

Aner, with his bare hands, threw it back.

Seven times.

The terrorist threw another grenade. Aner picked it up with his bare hands in the few seconds before it exploded – and threw it back at the terrorists.

Seven times.

One the eighth, it was too late.

Aner was killed. Hersh’s arm was blown off and he was taken hostage along with a few others the terrorists saw were still alive.

Most of the others inside exploded. Literally. Those who survived did so lying under pieces of other people’s bodies for hours, themselves wounded, not knowing if the noises they heard outside were the terrorists coming back to finish them off or Israelis coming to rescue them.

It took five hours before rescue came. Everyone who was more than lightly injured bled to death.

Zaka volunteers, trying to bring every Jew to proper burial removed the human remains, cleaned up the blood and other fluids (I’ve seen the video of people entering the shelter after the attack which I will not share here). The shelter has been whitewashed but the bullet holes and signs of the grenades remain.

Note the date on the sticker Zaka put on the outside of the shelter, notifying that it is clear and clean - November 19^th.

It is very difficult to step into a space where so many people lay in utter terror, wounded and dying.

The shelter is empty yet full. Sanctified by blood and heroism. Horror and awe. The ability to love others more than you love yourself.

Many of the family and friends of those murdered here have come, lit candles and written things on the walls – letters to those they loved who are no longer here, messages of strength and support for the nation and an extraordinary poem honoring Aner.

Written in red, in small letters near the floor, this poem tells the breathtaking story of Aner’s heroism. Something so huge, so moving should perhaps be someplace less modest – and yet, perhaps it’s in the most appropriate place, next to the signs of the shrapnel, by the door where he stood.

The Hebrew poem is more layered and rich in meaning than my translation can convey but everything about this story is deeper than words. Like Aner himself. 

Aner is an unusual name. It sounds like the Hebrew word for “the candle”, ha-ner. It turns out that Aner is a name from the bible of someone who was an ally of Abraham. The name is associated with being connected to our historic roots, true friendship and aspiring for justice. 

How fitting.

The Candle by Tzur Erlich: Next to the door, In the public domain, Which belonged to the guns, Which belonged to the Arabs, Stood the candle. Alone. Secure. Behind him, like a human flock, treasure [also =  hidden] And facing him, with a voice not a bell, They were hidden from the crowd, Grenade after grenade, grenade after grenade. And he was catching the raw [live] grenade, And threw it while alive, Throwing his life in response. One after another he counted, Like the branches of the [Chanukah) holiday candles. One... seven... eight. He counted, one after another, he withheld the plague. And thus he gave life. And thus he counted. One... three... five... until eight. And on the eighth, the candle was extinguished. Aner was extinguished

הנר (צור ארליך) סָמוּךְ אֵצֶל הַפֶּתַח, אֵצֶל רְשׁוּת הָרַבִּים שֶׁהָיְתָה לִרְשׁוּת הָרוֹבִים, שֶׁהָיְתָה לִרְשׁוּת עֲרָבִים, עָמַד הַנֵּר. לְבַד. לָבֶטַח. מֵאֲחוֹרָיו כְּצֹאן אָדָם. מַטְמוֹן.   וְאֶל פָּנָיו בְּקוֹל לֹא-פַּעֲמוֹן נִתְּכוּ בַּנֶּחְבָּאִים מִן הֶהָמוֹן רִמּוֹן וְרִמּוֹן, רִמּוֹן וְרִמּוֹן. וְרִמּוֹן וְרִמּוֹן, וְרִמּוֹן וְרִמּוֹן.   וְהוּא הָיָה תּוֹפֵס אֶת הָרִמּוֹן הַנָּא, וּמַשְׁלִיכוֹ בְּעוֹדוֹ חַי, מַשְׁלִיךְ חַיָּיו מִנֶּגֶד.   אֶחָד אַחַר אֶחָד מָנָה כִּקְנֵי נֵרוֹת הַחַג. אֶחָד… שִׁבְעָה… שְׁמוֹנָה. מָנָה אַחַר מָנָה מָנַע הַנֶּגֶף. וְכָךְ הָיָה מַחֲיֶה. וְכָךְ הָיָה מוֹנֶה. אַחַת… שָׁלוֹשׁ… חָמֵשׁ… וְעַד שְׁמוֹנֶה. וּבַשְּׁמִינִי כָּבָה הַנֵּר. כָּבָה עָנֵר

 

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