Thursday, April 21, 2022
From Ian:
Mark Regev: Islam has never had a tolerance for the Jewish state
91-year-old Holocaust survivor dies in freezing Mariupol basement
Mark Regev: Islam has never had a tolerance for the Jewish state
Many of today’s anti-Zionists will be surprised to learn that discrimination of Jews under Islamic rule was recorded by none other than Karl Marx. Writing in 1854, some half-century prior to the rise of political Zionism, Marx described the situation of Jerusalem’s Jews under Ottoman rule: “Nothing equals the misery and the suffering of the Jews of Jerusalem, inhabiting the most filthy quarter of the town… [They are] the constant objects of oppression and intolerance…”‘Listen to the Names Being Named’: Russian State TV in ‘Straight-Up Antisemitism’ Against Critics of Ukraine War
In the decades following Marx’s article, the situation of Jews in the Middle East improved with the lessening of historic dhimmi discrimination. But as this process was inspired by liberal European ideas, it brought with it an anti-Jewish backlash, heightening the association of the indigenous Jew with the hated foreigner.
Paradoxically, many Muslims who rejected western influence still eagerly embraced European antisemitic tropes, including the blood libel, most famously in Damascus in 1840, and the global Jewish conspiracy, evident in numerous Arabic editions of The Protocols of the Elders of Zion.
Undoubtedly the birth and development of Zionism contributed to Islamic hostility, building upon long-standing prejudicial attitudes. For while traditional Islam was willing to tolerate Jews whose status was safely inferior, Jewish aspirations for national self-determination and equality among the nations ran counter to centuries of established Islamic teaching.
While serving as Israel’s ambassador in London I experienced my first Ramadan breaking-the-fast iftar meal. Jewish-Muslim coexistence groups promote joint iftar events, but generally the subject of Israel is politely left at the doorstep, it being understood that a discussion of the Jewish state could negatively impact the desired ambiance. Yet, the Israeli embassy also hosted an annual iftar meal, attended by a small group of remarkable Muslims willing to engage.
Recent developments provide some optimism as to the trajectory of Jewish-Muslim relations. The Abraham Accords’ breakthroughs are significant and include a state-to-state interfaith and intercultural dialogue designed to enhance understanding. And in Israel, MK Mansour Abbas is breaking stereotypes, demonstrating that political Islam doesn’t have to be the Muslim Brotherhood’s unbridled hostility.
Genuine Muslim-Jewish coexistence is neither simple nor impossible, requiring the expansion of Islam’s commitment to tolerance to include an appreciation of the Jews’ desire not to revert to their former subservient status.
Ramadan Kareem.
Russian President Vladimir Putin has falsely depicted Ukrainian leaders — including the country’s Jewish president, Volodymyr Zelensky — as Nazi sympathizers, as part of a propaganda campaign to justify Russia’s invasion.
Applebaum, a Polish-American journalist who has been a staunch critic of the Putin regime, responded on Twitter to the segment, “I am bothered more by their blatant disregard for their own history and their insistence on lying about it, especially since they are right now repeating it.”
She also re-shared her original post that was later seized upon by Russia-1, noting it was not originally written in the Russian language as displayed on-air. In the Tuesday thread, Applebaum shared observations from the ground in the Bucha, Irpin and Hostomel — Kyiv suburbs whose near-total destruction by Russian forces over the past eight weeks has emerged more clearly with their eastward retreat.
“Other than the airport at Hostomel, none contain military targets. Nevertheless, all are destroyed,” Applebaum wrote. “It will be important, not just now, but 100 years from now, as we try to understand how the Russian army came to act in 2022, just as the Red Army did in 1939 and 1944-45. There is nothing predetermined about this behavior, or inevitable. Nations can and do change.”
“But after WW2, nobody talked about the mass rape, thefts carried out by the Red Army,” Applebaum continued. “After 1991, there was no broad exploration of the crimes of communism either. Instead, the same practices were taught to a new generation of soldiers. We saw them in Chechnya, Syria, now Ukraine.”
“If the institutions, culture and practices didn’t change, no wonder the behavior didn’t change. When we were shown a mass grave, the sense of deja vu was just as overwhelming as the horror. Nothing was learned.”
In March, Alexei Venediktov, former editor-in-chief of the liberal Echo Moskvy radio station, faced antisemitic intimidation for speaking out against the Kremlin, when he found a severed pig’s head and a sticker bearing Ukraine’s coat of arms along with the slogan “Judensau” (“Jewish pig”) outside the front door of his Moscow apartment.
As she lay dying in a Mariupol basement, freezing and pleading for water, Holocaust survivor Vanda Semyonovna Obiedkova wanted to know only one thing: "Why is this happening"?
Ill and emaciated during the last two weeks of her life, the 91-year-old could not even stand up. She died on April 4, not peacefully of old age in her own bed, but as a victim of the horrific war that has engulfed her hometown.
"Mama didn't deserve such a death," Obiedkova's daughter, Larissa, told Chabad.org through tears, just hours after arriving with her family in a safe location.
She had watched helplessly as her mother's life ebbed away, remaining at her side until the last moment. After her mother passed away, Larissa and her husband risked their lives to bury Obiedkova amid non-stop shelling in a public park less than a kilometer from the Azov Sea.
"The whole Mariupol has turned into a cemetery," said Rabbi Mendel Cohen, director of Chabad-Lubavitch of Mariupol and the Ukrainian port city's lone rabbi.
Obiedkova and her family had long been active members of Mariupol's Jewish community, the matriarch regularly receiving medical aid from Cohen's synagogue.
"Vanda Semyonovna lived through unimaginable horrors," the rabbi told Chabad.org. "She was a kind, joyous woman, a special person who will forever remain in our hearts."
Since the war began, Cohen has been working full-time to evacuate community members from the inferno, working the phones even on Shabbat, and most recently, Passover. He was able to evacuate Larissa and her family earlier this week.
Vanda Obiedkova was born in Mariupol on Dec. 8, 1930. She was 10 years old in October of 1941 when the Nazis entered Mariupol and began rounding up the city's Jews. When the SS came to the family home and took away Vanda's mother, Maria, the little girl managed to evade arrest by hiding in a basement.
"She couldn't scream; that's what saved her," says Larissa.
We are sickened to see Russia has bombed dozens of Jewish gravestones at the Berkovets cemetery in Kyiv, Ukraine.
— StopAntisemitism (@StopAntisemites) April 21, 2022
This must be another one of Putin's attempts to "denazify" Ukraine …
Source: Rabbi Azman via Telegram pic.twitter.com/4tZlIxMBpY
