Metropolis, July 11 - The world's greatest superhero granted an exclusive interview yesterday to PreOccupied Territory, in which he detailed his approach to pursuing truth, fighting crime, promoting individualism and democracy, and doing next to nothing while the Nazis systematically slaughtered the Jews of Europe and other minorities.
Superman, who burst onto the international scene in 1938, invited a reporter to his Fortress of Solitude in the Arctic ice Tuesday, where he reminisced and explained how he prioritizes crises to address. During the two-hour series of discussions, the Last Son of Krypton explored the minutiae of his exploits, in the main analyzing how he effectively ignored the industrialized killing of history's most-persecuted group yet still emerged from the 1940's with a reputation for defending the defenseless and serving justice to oppressors.
"No one really thinks anymore that the Holocaust was unknown to Americans while it was happening," acknowledged Superman. "For a couple of decades after World War II that served as a plausible enough excuse that no one really asked me what could be more important than preventing the systematic murder of six million Jews. But subsequent research - and a good number of contemporaneous sources - indicate that knowledge of the atrocities wasn't so hard to come by even across the ocean from where they were happening."
"What it amounts to," continued the Man of Steel, "is that ignoring Jewish suffering is actually an essential part of 'the American Way,' as demonstrated by immigration policy at the time, and no effort on the part of the Allies to disrupt the killing. In retrospect, and I'm glad for this opportunity to clarify things, that means 'Truth, Justice, and the American Way' are not three equally important values, but that the first two are subservient to the third. If promoting truth or justice in a certain case would deviate from the American Way, in this case shutting our doors to people desperate to escape the Nazi persecution and killing machine, lest domestic antisemites get upset and make political trouble, then truth and justice must take a back seat to that."
For similar reasons, the Son of Tomorrow explained, he has taken no measures to stop North Korea or Iran from developing nuclear weapons, and stayed home on September 11, 2001. "My whole ethos is one of an immigrant who becomes the embodiment of the American Way," he noted. "My Jewish creators made me the assimilated ideal. There's no way I can betray that by doing anything that might indicate I harbor special sympathy for Jews, as that would go against my assimilation axiom."
"Barack Obama is no longer in office so I no longer have the excuse of not undermining government policy in terms of Iran," he concluded. "But I'm a lifelong Democrat, and unlike some of my hypocritical political colleagues, I did move north when Trump was elected."
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Mahmoud Abbas and his West Bank-based government seek to prolong the suffering of the Palestinians in the Gaza Strip. They want the international community to continue to believe that Israel is responsible for the ongoing, intense suffering of the Palestinians. They are hoping to use the crisis there to pursue their campaign to delegitimize Israel.
Palestinian leaders would prefer to see their people starve than make any form of concessions for peace with Israel. Yet Al-Aloul and Abbas are not the ones who are facing starvation. There is nothing more comfortable than sitting in your fashionable house in Ramallah or Nablus and talking about starvation and humanitarian aid.
The Palestinians of the Gaza Strip, who are desperate for jobs and a better life, do not really care about Trump's upcoming peace plan. They also do not really care about a settlement or a checkpoint in the West Bank.
This is the essence of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict: The Palestinians' number one priority -- the Palestinian leadership and the Palestinians in general -- is destroying Israel. They would rather die than give up their dream of destroying Israel.
The Israeli military struck three Syrian military targets overnight on Wednesday in retaliation for a Syrian drone that infiltrated into northern Israel hours earlier.
"The IDF holds the Syrian regime accountable for the actions carried out in its territory and warns it from further action against Israeli forces," read a statement released by the IDF Spokesperson’s Unit.
Footage released by the Israeli military showed missiles hitting a hut, a two-story structure and a five-story structure.
The official Syrian news agency SANA reported that Israeli jets “fired a number of missiles towards some military posts” near the Druze town of Hadar and Tal Kroum Jaba in Quneitra countryside, causing only material damage. Another strike by rockets and mortar shells targeted the village of Jaba causing significant damage to the houses.
With Syrian government forces continue to advance in an offensive to retake the strategic Syrian Golan Heights from rebels groups, the IDF has stressed for the 1974 separation of forces agreement between Israel and Syria to be upheld and the demilitarized buffer zone along the border be respected.
On Wednesday a Syrian drone flew some 10 kilometers into Israel before being intercepted by a Patriot missile.
Footage of the Patriot missile intercepting the Syrian UAV that infiltrated Israeli territory today pic.twitter.com/g5MnjZLdyl
Earlier tonight, Wednesday July 11th, the IDF targeted three military posts in Syria in response to the infiltration of the Syrian UAV into Israel that was intercepted by the IDF earlier today pic.twitter.com/BvaEOfHNDv
“You keep using that word… I do not think it means what you think it means.”
I keep hearing and reading statements from Jews, usually from America, prefaced by “my Jewish values.” Usually what follows is some sort of accusation against Israel that has little to do with facts – or an understanding of Jewish values.
The basics are really simple, if you take the time to actually look at them:
1)The Ten Commandments, not “Tikkun Olam”
The Ten Commandments are the fundamental guidelines of Jewish values, not the concept of Tikkun Olam. These are predicated on the Shema, the monotheistic declaration of faith in the One God: “Hear oh Israel, the Lord our God is one God.” Deuteronomy6:4–9
The Ten Commandments are the guidelines that spell out what it means to be decent and provide the fundamental guidelines of moral society which have been accepted by to most of the nations on earth, including ones that do not adhere to Judeo-Christian faith. Societies that have not accepted these rules of behavior, (for example, those that permit murder for the sake of “honor”) are deemed immoral societies.
Tikkun Olam seems to be a very popular term with American Jewry. Interestingly, it has no basis in the Torah.
So where does Tikkun Olam come from?
The concept of Tikkun Olam can be found in in the prayer “Aleinu leshabei'ach” and the Kabbalistic understanding that the world is not whole because the male and female aspects of God are separated rather than united. At the time of redemption these aspects will unite and the world will be repaired. These references are so esoteric that many Israeli Jews have no familiarity with this concept at all.
Tikkun Olam does NOT mean social justice.
The literal translation of Tikkun Olam is “repairing the world.” It is not difficult to comprehend that the world is broken but who has the power to fix it? Why doesn’t God fix the world?
If one takes the time to actually consider this question, it is shockingly arrogant to conclude that a certain group of individuals have the ability to repair the world. Can any single group decide what is the “right” way for everyone to do things and by convincing (forcing?) others to comply, fix all that is wrong in the world?!
Judaism is not a missionary based religion and does not push faith or lifestyle on others. Jews never took part in Crusades or sent missionaries around the world to convince the “heathen” to adopt our religion and our ways of life. In fact, Judaism does the exact opposite, making it extremely difficult to become Jewish – so why would anyone think it is “Jewish” to “crusade” for social justice?
Judaism provides a very clear guidebook of how to live a good life and be a decent human being. The commandments of Judaism are for Jews and are not directed at non-Jews. By extension, redemption (at which time the world will be “repaired”) has nothing to do with what non-Jews do or don’t do but rather the behavior of Jews. Our influence on this process has to do with fixing ourselves, not changing others, fulfilling our own obligations, not demanding others do what we think is right.
History has shown that Jews, living a Jewish life (in contrast to Jewish-by-birth radical atheists) have a positive influence on the societies in which we live but this is not a result of being a “social justice warrior” but rather social justice, the creation of a good and moral society, is a by-product of adhering to the principles of Judaism.
To put it simply – be Maimonides (the Rambam) not Karl Marx.
2)“Do not kill” vs “Do not murder”
Recent condemnations of Israeli policy in regard to Gaza draw on “Jewish values” to declare that killing is wrong and accuse the IDF of massacring Gazans. On face value, the idea that the Jewish State implements policy that goes against Jewish values seems like a potent argument - unless you actually know what Jewish values are and have familiarized yourself with a factual accounting of events in Israel.
So, first things first –
Does Judaism say that killing is wrong?
No! The Ten Commandments say that murder is forbidden, not killing.
If killing was forbidden we would all be vegetarians. Instead of extensive chapters on the laws of warfare and the wars of Israel, the Torah would simply say that Jews must be pacifists.
But it doesn’t.
Judaism instructs that life is sacred thus we must protect life – first and foremost OUR own lives. When attacked by someone attempting to murder you it is necessary to make sure that the murderer does not succeed. If the murderer dies in the process this is regrettable but justifiable. Had they not been attempting to murder, they would not have been hurt.
Killing in self-defense is not murder.
So how does this translate to Israeli policy and IDF actions?
On May 14th some 40,000 Gazans rioted on Israel’s border with Gaza. They had explosives, knives and firebombs. Their leaders had openly declared that the goal was to storm the border, break through and eat the hearts of Jews. Many of the rioters used little children and even babies as human shields to hide behind as they a ttempted to breach the border.
IDF snipers killed 62 of the rioters.
Israel was promptly accused of massacring “peaceful protestors” and using “disproportional force.”
A massacre is the deliberate, indiscriminate and brutal slaughter of a large number of people.
Two days later Hamas, an internationally recognized terrorist organization, announced proudly that 50 out of the 62 dead were Hamas professionals, trained operatives who had left their uniforms at home to blend in with the civilian Gazan population while attempting to attack Israel. Islamic Jihad took responsibility for most of the remaining dead. These were not innocent or peaceful protestors. They were professional terrorists.
Hamas official, Dr. Salah Al-Bardawil is clear about terrorist involvement in the riots pic.twitter.com/p5My6JGQRr
Had the IDF decided to drop bombs on the rioters that would have constituted a massacre. All of the 40,000 could have easily been killed. That would have stopped the subsequent 100 days of violent riots, missiles and arson attacks on Israeli communities. It would have been much easier for the IDF, faster and more effective. Israelis who lost their livelihood to arson terror would not be in the position they are today.
But we don’t do that.
The IDF, knowing that terrorists were hiding within the civilian population managed, astonishingly, to eliminate the terrorists and not the innocents they were using as human shields. This is an unprecedented level of pinpoint accuracy, discriminant, minimal violence made necessary after all other options were exhausted.
The accusation that the IDF “massacred” Gazans, using disproportional force, is utterly baseless and in fact contrary to Jewish values which demand that the State must defend the lives of her citizens. It would be immoral to do otherwise.
3)Arguing and questioning are the birthright of the Jewish people
Unlike religions that came before Judaism and those that came after, Jewish tradition demands questioning, not blind obedience. One can and in some cases, should, argue even with God. The best example of this is probably the story of Sodom and Gomorrah where God tells Abraham that the cities will be destroyed and Abraham critiques God for this decision, bargaining for the lives of the people living there.
It is imperative to ask “Why?” This is the mindset that has differentiated the Jewish mind from all others, made Jewish scholars extraordinary and is the driving factor in the success of the Start-Up Nation. The constant need to question, arguing sometimes for the pure joy of the mental gymnastics of debating makes Jews annoying but it also makes us exceptional.
In Judaism there is always a reason why. The problem is that those who do not know the answers and do not bother to search for them often jump to incorrect and even baseless conclusions. My Jewish values direct me to not accept bombastic statements but to question everything, think for myself and if I don’t know they answer, ask “why?” until I get an acceptable answer – particularly when it comes to big issues such as my Jewish identity and my right to live free in my ancestral homeland.
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On Tuesday evening, I checked out the protest by BDSers outside the Joyce Theater in New York where Israel's Batsheva Dance Company was to perform.
The BDSers had a small band and one person would start a responsive verse about some trendy intersectional issue interspersed with verses about "Israeli apartheid" that would be repeated by the 15 or so drones.
It was pretty boring.
I spoke to one lady handing out flyers with typical anti-Israel lies, and asked her if I can ask her a few questions. I asked if she was anti-Israel or pro-Palestine, and she said she wasn't anti-Israel at all. Then I asked her what about the slogan "from the river to the sea, Palestine will be free" and she answered that she wanted a single democratic state (obviously not Israel.) I then asked her if she was against a Jewish state, and she said she didn't want Israel to be like Iran where there is a state religion (which Israel doesn't have.) When I asked her about every Arab state save Lebanon that says they are Muslim states in their constitutions, she claimed I was wrong and then called over one of the others because she realized she was in way over her head. They told her not to talk to me.
The JDL was there doing a counter-demonstration. while I thought that people holding signs saying "Punish Gaza" do not do anything at all positive for Israel, Zionism or Jews, at least they countered the other hate.
Police barricades were up to make sure that theatre-goers wouldn't be harassed. I didn't stay until the box office opened.
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Progressive Zionists of the California Democratic Party is concerned about candidate for Assembly Member in District 63 Maria Estrada’s public support of notorious homophobe and antisemite Louis Farrakhan and her repeated and extreme antisemitism in the guise of “criticism of Israel".
Candidate Estrada made repeated antisemitic remarks about the Jewish state in a series of Facebook comments.
On May 10, 2017 she posted a cartoon replacing the Magen David on the Israeli flag with the swastika of the Nazis, but the next day she apologized for her post. However, on October 6, 2017 she claimed non-Jews could not be Zionists without being influenced by Jewish friends or loved ones. In this same exchange--shortly after a detailed posting of many of Farrakhan's hateful statements about Jews--she commented that she “enjoys listening to Farrakhan’s sermons”, as well as claiming Democrats turn a blind eye to Palestinians, and “justify it by bringing up the Holocaust. As if what happened 70 years ago justifies what is happening now.”
On May 14, 2018 “calling out” Eric Bauman, Chair of the California Democratic Party, she admonished him for not keeping “your party, your religion and your people in check.”
Comparing Zionism - the movement for Jewish liberation and self-determination - to ideologies that support oppression and genocide against Jews is grotesquely racist. ...
Additionally, it is antisemitic to claim Jews spend too much time talking about the Holocaust, or compare the situation in Palestine to what the Nazis did to Jews. This comparison holds no real comparable value and is intended only to hurt Jews, especially those who lost the majority of their families to Nazis. Nazis intended to ensure there were no Jews left anywhere on the planet. We can and should be in dialogue about how Israel handles Palestinian concerns, but it is a deliberate and malicious contrivance to attempt to somehow hold these two as equal.
Moreover, Estrada saying that she “enjoy[s] listening to Farrakhan’s sermons”, a known and noxious public figure, is a slap in the face to the LGBTQ community and women as well as Jews. Farrakhan’s sermons are littered with homophobia and misogyny. The SPLC and the ADL label him as a hate figure. A truly progressive leader would spurn him from their spaces to make it as safe and inclusive for all identities.
I have no idea why the organization didn't say anything about the statement "Anyone who believes they are one of 'God's chosen people' automatically feels superior and justified and all they do" [sic]. That is more antisemitic than anything else they quoted.
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Mr. President, one year ago in this chamber I asked the Arab states a simple question: “Where are your Jews?”
My question was met with dead silence. Millions of people worldwide watched the video, witnessing for themselves the hypocrisy and double standards that characterizes much of what is said and done here.
Today I have come to provide the answer to my question. Algeria, Iraq, Syria, Egypt, Lebanon, Yemen, Libya—your Jews fled as refugees after suffering persecution and deadly pogroms like the Farhud of Baghdad in 1941.
Fortunately, countries like Israel, the U.S., Canada, France and others opened their doors, offering citizenship and equal rights. These Jewish refugees from Arab lands—whose suffering and losses the UN has never addressed—put their hardship behind them and built great lives for their families.
Now let us contrast this with the situation of those descended from Arab refugees who fled the area of British Mandatory Palestine during the invasion of nascent Israel by Arab armies. What is holding them back? The answer is simple.
Palestinians are the only population in the world not eligible for services by the UN refugee agency. Instead these descendants are governed by UNRWA, which holds generation after generation trapped in refugee camps, denied integration in the Arab countries they were born in and denied resettlement elsewhere.
Some of UNRWA’s donors are waking up to the problem. As the Swiss Foreign Minister recently has put it: “By supporting UNRWA, we are only keeping the conflict alive.”
Please join me here as I discuss with Avi Abelow of Israel Unwired Britain’s increasingly tumultuous Brexit drama, the UK Foreign Office’s sudden qualms over funding Palestinian Authority textbook incitement (!), the Labour party’s ever-deepening mire over antisemitism, and more.
Palestinian activists have accused the Saudi TV channel “al Arabiya”, a Zionist propaganda. The reason for this was the transfer on “the Nakba” – the flight of the Arabs from Israel after the proclamation of the Jewish state.
The channel has decided to dedicate the 1948 two programmes. One told about them from the perspective of living in Palestine-Arabs, the second – from the point of view of the Jewish Yishuv. “Al Arabiya” reported that the issue must be approached without ideological blinders.
“Ignoring any professional standards, the staff of “al-Arabi” Express support unjust occupation in the film about the creation of the Zionist entity. This ignores all the historical facts”, – reads the statement of the Palestinian Center of Resistance to Normalization.
The Center called the transfer “a scandalous disaster journalism.” According to the statement, the purpose of this interpretation of history is the normalization of between the Zionists and the Arab world, the website of The New Arab.
According to other sites, the Israeli side of the documentary "represented Palestinians as criminals; the ones who attacked the Israelis to begin with. It has also described Hamas as a ‘Terrorist Movement’ for trying to defend the land, and defended ‘Haganah’ as a Jewish paramilitary organization."
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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 20 years and 40,000 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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Thursday, July 12, 2018
Elder of Ziyon
Metropolis, July 11 - The world's greatest superhero granted an exclusive interview yesterday to PreOccupied Territory, in which he detailed his approach to pursuing truth, fighting crime, promoting individualism and democracy, and doing next to nothing while the Nazis systematically slaughtered the Jews of Europe and other minorities.
