Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News: Tisha B'Av

Showing posts with label Tisha B'Av. Show all posts

Monday, August 28, 2023

Jordan's "Royal Committee for Jerusalem Affairs" issues another antisemitic statement: "Zionists created the Temple myth"

The Royal Committee for Jerusalem Affairs is a quasi-governmental Jordanian organization, with many members who are also ministers of the Jordanian government, whose purpose is "working to raise awareness of the importance of the issue of Jerusalem and not to separate it from its Arab and Islamic dimension, expose the Judaization and daily Israeli violations it is subjected to, and increase efforts working to stabilize Jerusalemites, support their steadfastness and publicize their suffering."

It issues a multi-page daily bulletin on supposed Israeli "violations" of the city - like Jews strolling on the Temple Mount.

Its latest accusations are particularly ludicrous - and antisemitic.

As reported in the official Jordanian news agency Petra:

The Israeli occupation exploits many occasions and events as a climate to conduct Talmudic rituals, incursions and attacks against Islamic and Christian sanctities in Palestine, and Jerusalem in particular.

Abdullah Kanaan, Secretary-General of the Royal Committee for Jerusalem Affairs, says that the Israeli occupation is trying to take advantage of the month of August (Av) in a systematic and deliberate process, which includes Israeli measures to create an alleged history and culture through a dramatic industry that shows the Jews as victims to win the positions of the superpowers and sympathize with public opinion towards them.

He said to the Jordan News Agency (Petra) "The Jews claim that on Av 9, 586 BC, the alleged temple was destroyed, and the Jews were taken captive by Nebuchadnezzar, and that on Av 9, 70 AD, the alleged temple was destroyed again by Titus the Roman, and on August 8 1877 AD, the Jews established the first settlement north of Jaffa, and it was called Petah Tikva, and in August 1897 AD, the First Zionist Congress was held, which transformed Zionist thought into a political movement seeking to establish a national home for the Jews in historical Palestine."

He continues, “On August 21, 1969 AD, the Zionist Dennis Rohan burned parts of the Al-Qibli Mosque, and in August 1979 AD, an extremist group (Gush Emunim) planned to destroy the blessed Al-Aqsa Mosque, but it failed. On August 3, 2011 AD, the Knesset discussed the project to build a cable car to link the western and eastern parts of Jerusalem with the aim of changing the historical identity of the city and facilitating the transportation of settlers. to occupied cities."

And he goes on to say: "These are maliciously invented occasions to consolidate the legend of the Temple and the Promised Land."

He called for educating the world public opinion through all the media about the seriousness of the so-called sad month of Av for the Jews, and stressing that it is a Talmudic, political, settlement month that has nothing to do with historical facts that confirm the absence of the alleged temple or any archaeological evidence that supports Zionist myths in historical Palestine.

This committee, whose entire purpose is to deny any Jewish ties to Jerusalem, is respected and has been quoted by the UN.

Temple denial and the claim that there is no proof of the Temples is ludicrous and antisemitic. As I've mentioned before, the entire Temple Mount was built by Jews, in sections, from the time of the Biblical kings to the Hasmonean extensions to the Herodian extensions. These extensions with their differing characteristics can be seen from the Eastern Wall of the Mount.

The entire Temple Mount is proof of the Jewish Temples and Biblical history!

It is bad enough that Jordanian media spouts pure antisemitism every day. Just this past weekend one writer quoted 18th century antisemitic philosophers to "prove" that Jews are selfish, greedy, ugly, and their consciousness is that of animals.

But this is an official Jordanian organization, whose members are in the government, and which was established by the Jordanian royal family. They deny even Islamic sources that prove the deep connection of Jews to Jerusalem and the existence of the Temples, and Islamic tradition admits that the Dome of the Rock was purposely built on the site of the Temples in order replace them.

Their Jew-hatred runs so deep that they are willing to discard even their own historians.

Accusing Jews of inventing a new history for Jerusalem is a perfect example of Arab psychological projection.

Buy the EoZ book, PROTOCOLS: Exposing Modern Antisemitism today at Amazon!

Or order from your favorite bookseller, using ISBN 9798985708424.

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So is it US policy that some Jews must be banned from the Temple Mount?

From the Jerusalem Post:

The United States slammed as “unacceptable” National Security Minister Ben-Gvir’s visit to the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound on the Temple Mount on Thursday, to mark the annual Tisha Be’av fast.

“We reaffirm our long-standing US position in support of the historic status quo at Jerusalem’s holy sites,” State Department deputy spokesperson Vedant Patel told reporters in Washington.

“Any unilateral action or rhetoric that deviates or jeopardizes the status quo is completely unacceptable,” Patel emphasized.

The US Embassy in Jerusalem issued a similar statement and US Ambassador Robert Wood echoed his country’s displeasure in a speech he delivered to the United Nations Security Council.

“This holy place should not be used for political purposes. We call on all parties to respect its sanctity,” he said.

No matter what one thinks of Ben Gvir, what is unacceptable is for the US to say that some Jews have a very limited right to visit their holiest spot, which is bad enough, and then to make it worse by saying that some Jews should have no rights to visit it at all.

From a Jewish perspective, it is the Muslims who visit the Dome of the Rock and the areas around it who are desecrating the holy spot. Every single day.

Jewish sensitivities towards the most sacred spot in Judaism are meaningless to the State Department.

But for some reason, Muslim sensitivities to make the entire area Judenrein is not something to be condemned by the US government..

Even when they give antisemitic speeches there.

Even when they wave Hamas flags.

Even when they stockpile projectiles and fireworks.

When those things happen, the State Department never issues sanctimonious statements urging Muslims to "respect its sanctity."

Anything and everything that Muslims do on the Temple Mount is somehow part of the mythical "status quo" while anything Jews do is a threat and a potential powder keg.

There is something very wrong here.

Ben Gvir did nothing provocative and said nothing that is offensive, certainly when compared to the Jew-hatred being spouted regularly on Al Aqsa. But the State Department feels that they can attack him without repercussions from the Jewish community, because he is so reviled by so many.

What Jews need to realize is that this attack on him was couched in terms of an attack on all Jews who want to assert historic rights to our most sacred place, and that is what is "completely unacceptable."

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!

Have an easy and meaningful fast

Jews' Place of Wailing, Jerusalem, 1842, William Henry Bartlett

For those who mark Tisha B'Av, have an easy and meaningful fast.

I will not be posting until Thursday afternoon.

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!

Two description of Tisha B'Av in 19th century newspapers

In the 19th century, apparently, Jews referred to Tisha B'Av as the "black fast" and Yom Kippur as the "white fast."

The earliest description I can find in English-language newspapers is from The Argus of Western America

25 Jun 1828. It was printed in Kentucky, which was "western America 'at the time.

The article is about the customs of Jews altogether.

Towards the end, it describes fast days, and then descends into bizarre claims and antisemitism.

A much more accurate description can be found in The Western Daily Press (Bristol, England) 13 Aug 1883:

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!

On Tisha B'Av, a story of how Jews infighting in the seventh century has worldwide implications, today

When Mohammed was starting his new religion, the Arabian peninsula had many Jewish tribes. A 2012 Aish article by Sarah Yocheved Rigler explains:

According to Dr. Hagai Mazuz, an Orientalist specializing in Arabic language, Islam, and Islamic culture, “The Jewish community of northern Arabia was one of the largest ancient Jewish communities in the history of the Jewish people.”

They were powerful and wealthy. They were respected by the local Arabian tribes for their religion, culture, erudition, and literacy. They built castles on mountaintops and developed productive plantations. They had military prowess, horses, and advanced weaponry. And they were almost totally annihilated in the short span of a few years.

The Jews of Medina were divided into three groups: The Banu Qaynuqa were blacksmiths, weapon wrights, and goldsmiths. The Banu Nadir had date plantations. The Banu QurayUa were wine merchants. These groups often quarreled. Sometimes the hostility among them broke out into actual fighting.

When Mohammed fled from Mecca in 622, he went to Medina. At first, he entered into an alliance with the Jews. He studied in their study halls and adopted many of their customs into his incipient religion (e.g. not eating pork). But when, after two years, Mohammed could not convince the Jews to accept him as a prophet and convert to his religion, his attitude turned toward open hostility. He instructed his friends to murder and decapitate Ka’b Ibn al-Ashraf, a renowned Jewish poet and chief of the Banu Nadir (date farmers tribe), and ordered his followers, “Kill every Jew you can.”

I had never heard that quote before, and the article points to an article in a popular Jewish history magazine. But I researched this and it is indeed a true quote from an Islamic source, Ibn Hishām’s biography of Muḥammad, quoted in this academic paper:

Ibn Isḥāq said: The Apostle of Allāh said: “Kill every Jew you can lay your hands on (man ẓafirtum bihi min rijāl yahūd fa-qtulūhu).” Whereupon Muḥayṣṣa b. Masʿūd attacked and killed Ibn Sunayna, one of the Jewish merchants that used to associate and do business with them.

The Aish article continues:

Mohammed then besieged the Banu Qaynuqa (blacksmith tribe), knowing that the other two Jewish tribes would not come to their aid. Although the Banu Qaynuqa were proficient warriors, the lack of food and water due to the siege weakened them to the point of surrender.

The other two Jewish tribes did nothing to save the Jewish blacksmiths. After the surrender, Mohammed wanted to slaughter the vanquished tribe, but his ally Abdullah Ibn Ubayyy prevented the massacre, and instead they were exiled to Edri (now in Jordan).

Mohammed confiscated their considerable assets. Strengthened by captured Jewish wealth, one year later Mohammed turned his attention to the next Jewish tribe, the date growers. To ensure that the tribe of the wine merchants would not come to the rescue of their fellow Jews, Mohammed made an alliance with the wine merchants.

Mohammed’s forces laid siege to the strongholds of the Jewish date farmers in 625. Like the previous Jewish tribe, they succumbed to the siege. Again Abdullah Ibn Ubayyy intervened, and instead of slaughtering the vanquished Jews, Mohammed exiled them to the city of Khaybar, which, according to Muslim tradition, was inhabited by descendants of the Jewish priestly tribe.

Three years later Mohammed conquered Khaybar, the wealthiest city in northern Arabia. Because the Muslims did not know agriculture, Mohammed permitted most of the Jews to live as dhimmis, officially second-class citizens who had to pay exorbitant taxes. Eventually the second Caliph banished the Jews of Khaybar, in obedience to Mohammed’s policy that permitted no religion other than Islam to be practiced in Arabia.

Back in Medina, the wine merchant tribe had only two years to relish their position as the sole surviving Jews. Then, in 627, Mohammed, with 3,000 soldiers, laid siege to their fortress. The Jewish tribe had only 450 trained warriors. Because Abdullah Ibn Ubayyy had died a few months before, the Jews knew that no one would intercede on their behalf. The leader of the besieged Jews proposed that they either convert to Islam or, similar to Masada, kill their own women and children to prevent their being ravished and enslaved, and then fight the Muslims to the death. The Jews rejected both options and offered to surrender and leave Medina.

Mohammed rejected their offer. The vanquished wine merchants tribe, who had twice refused to help the other besieged Jewish tribes, suffered the worst fate. The children were sold as slaves; the women were given to the victorious soldiers “for the Muslims to use,” and the men (except for three who agreed to convert to Islam) were decapitated in the marketplace. According to Muslim tradition, the blood of the decapitated Jews flooded the marketplace of Medina.

A large, powerful, affluent Jewish community was destroyed in just three years. Was it destroyed by Mohammed’s forces or was it destroyed by its own divisiveness?

This is a stunning perspective. If the Jews of Medina had just put aside their differences, Mohammed would have been defeated and history would look quite different.

The traditional Jewish view is that the Temples were destroyed because of baseless hatred between Jews. How many lives could have been saved if it wasn't for the baseless hatred of the Jews in Arabia against each other?

May Jewish unity only get stronger so we will transform Tisha B'Av from a day of mourning to a holiday.

Illustration: Detail from miniature painting The Prophet, Ali, and the Companions at the Massacre of the Prisoners of the Jewish Tribe of Beni Qurayzah, illustration of a 19th century text by Muhammad Rafi Bazil.

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!

Andy Levin's synagogue celebrates Tisha B'Av with a yoga class

In response to a tweet about Andy Levin, who touted himself during his campaign as a former synagogue president, Melissa Braunstein asked, "Why hasn’t an article been written about that synagogue? Are the members all like Levin politically speaking?"

The answer is that his synagogue is as fringe about Judaism as Levin is about Israel.

His synagogue is Congregation T'chiyah, a Reconstructionist synagogue. According to the 1990 National Jewish Population Survey, only 1% of Jews identified as Reconstructionist at the time. Since then, the survey has lumped them in with "others" which are at 4% total. About 2.5% of American synagogues in 2002 identified as Reconstructionist.

Either way, they represent a tiny slice of American Judaism.

The founder of Reconstructionist Judaism does not believe in a personal God. He defined God as "the sum of all natural processes that allow people to become self-fulfilled." This is not mainstream Judaism, or mainstream religion.

Levin's congregation describes itself in progressive word-salad style.

At this time, services - when they are held - are in a rented room of a Methodist church that is also considered progressive.

Their calendar does not mention Tisha B'Av this coming Sunday. Instead, they are having a yoga class.

My point isn't to slam Reconstructionist Judaism, although I strongly disagree with everything about it. I'm just saying that all the people who pretended that Levin was some sort of SuperJew for being the president of a synagogue are gaslighting the Jewish community, because a synagogue like this - that says nothing about Israel on its webpage and in its programming - is not at all mainstream.

Just like Andy Levin's political views are not at all mainstream among American Jews.

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!