Arabs III

There's no such thing as a "fundamentalist arab". First of all, "arab" is not a religion - Islam is. The followers of Islam are called Moslems. Arab is a geographic adjective and has nothing to do with religion. There are Syrian Jews and Egyptian Christians, just as there are Anglo or Spanish Jews and Christians. And Moslems. It is a Zionist thing to make the current conflict in Israel into a Jew vs. Moslem religious war. It has nothing to do with religion. A minority of Moslems actually are Arabs - most Moslems live in Asia in places like China and Indonesia and Pakistan, more than Lebanon and Syria and the Arab countries. Moslems never had anything against Jews, in fact, we got along much better with them than we did with the Christians. (Remember: There was no holocaust in the Arab countries!) Jews and Christians both are considered "protected religions" in Islam - we are not "infidels" to them. The fight in the middle east is political: Zionists vs. Arabs, both who want the same piece of land. It has zero to do with Judaism (it wasn’t those practicing Judaism who took the land to begin with) or Islam (the fight broke out in the middle east because that’s where the land was --- even though there are more moslems in Asia), and the fight did not start until the Zionists declared in the early 20th century that they are taking the land.

Second, Arafat is not a practicing Moslem. He is totally secular - like Sharon is to Judaism. And just like the Arabs are tricked into thinking that heretics like Sharon and his ilk represent what "Jews" hold, Jews are tricked into thinking that secular Arabs like Arafat represent what Moslems hold. Arafat is even married to a Christian (even though in Moslem law technically a man may marry a woman of another religion, though a woman may only marry a fellow Moslem, nevertheless it is very very frowned upon and not done by religious Moslems).

Thirdly, Moslems don't use descriptions such as fundamentalist - that’s exclusive to Christianity.

But just as we have many sects who claim to represent Judaism, such as Conservative and Reform, but are really other religions, there are also many religions vying for the label of legitimate Islam.

The kharijites and their sub-sects (such as wahhabi) and the sub sects of the sub sects are on one end of the spectrum, and the shia are on the other. The kharijites are more of what you would call fundamentalists in another religion. And the wild militant crazies are sub sects of sub sects going in that direction.

And even the crazies of crazies are not motivated by a hatred for Judaism, but rather it is a political war - over the land - and they are targeting Jews as their political enemies because of the political dispute over the land; they don’t care at all about Judaism itself.

The following was part of a public statement by a Hamas murderer ys"v:

Session Details
Guest Name Mr. Usama Hamdan: Member of Hamas, & Hamas Representative in Lebanon
Subject: Mid-East Truce: Will Peace Prevail?
Date Thursday,Jul 10 ,2003
Time Mecca
From... 18:30...To... 20:30
GMT
From... 15:30...To...17:30

Name Daniel - United States
Profession
Question: Greetings Mr. Hamdan. I would like to ask you whether you
and your organizations, and others like yours, both in Palestine and in
the Palestinian diaspora are aware of the fact that there are many religious
Jews who oppose Zionism? ... How ironic that the world forgets that before Zionism the Jewish People never had as good
friends [relatively] as the Arab People!

Answer: First of all, thank you for your greetings and I send you the same. We are certainly aware and very much concerned with you have said. And I would like to clarify that our resistance against the Zionists is just for the fact that they are occupiers. And of course we don't fight them for their religion, on the contrary, with respect to us as Muslims, we are commanded to deal with Christians and Jews with great respect. And that's why the Arab and Muslim region is the only place where Christians and Jews were not killed or persecuted just for their religion.


Now of course, it is needless to say that this does not justify in the slightest nor reduce the intensity of the guilt of people like him and his gang of terrorists who murder innocent people. May G-d avenge them all swiftly and completely! But that is exactly the point - a fight was picked by the Zionists against millions of Arabs, which include animals like the Hamas murderers, and people like the Brisker Rav ZTL and Rav Michoel Ber Weissmandel ZTL warned them that this would happen if they tried to make a Jewish State in Eretz Yisroel. All those deaths are not in the slightest justified - but the Gedolim told us they could have been prevented. If you walk into Harlem at night alone, you may get hurt. Walking alone at night does not justify the mugger, but if you were smart, you could have prevented it. And if you go and scream out racial epithets, antagonizing the Harlem residents, and then get yourself killed, well, even though calling someone names does not in the slightest make him less of a murderer, it makes you an idiot, and suicidal for doing it.

And if you shlep your brothers and sisters and family with you, then you are a criminal. And that does not negate in the slightest the guilt of the murderer; it merely means that you're a murderer as well.

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If we as Jews know anything about religious persecution, it is that random quotes and laws "on the books" mean nothing in terms of actual beliefs. Zionists have done to the Moslems the exact same thing that the KKK and anti-semites have done to the Jews: takes some halachos and quotes form Torah and, without explaining them in depth, displayed them as "proof" of the Jews' danger to the world.

The following is flaunted on the KKK websites:


Sanhedrin 59a: "A Goy (Gentile) who pries into the law (Talmud) is guilty of death."

"Yebhamoth 11b: "Sexual intercourse with a little girl is permitted if she is of three years of age.

Shabouth Hag. 6b: "Jews may swear falsely by use of subterfuge wording.

Choschen Ham 266, 1: "A Jew may keep anything he finds which belongs to the Akum (Gentile). For he who returns lost property (to Gentiles) sins against the law by increasing the power of the transgressors of the law. It is praiseworthy, however, to return lost property if it is done to honor the name of God, namely if by so doing Christians will praise the Jews and look upon them as honorable people."

"Yebamoth 98a - Egyptians have no fathers ... G-d declared their children to be legally fatherless, as it says "Their flesh is like the flesh of donkeys and their children are like the children of horses"

Goyim in the eyes of the Jews: "Their flesh is like the flesh of donkeys and their children are like the children of horses"

How about the anti-semites who toss around the following halachos, all of which are quotes:


"A goy who worships idols is guilty of the death penalty" AND "Christianity is idol worship". Ergo, all Christians who practice their religion are guilty of the death penalty according to Jewish law.

Heretics that do not believe in the Jewish religion (apikorsim) - are guilty of the death penalty.

Then look up the english translation of "shefoch chamaschah" and try to imagine what it can do in the wrong hands!

And what about the fact that Jews pray 3 ties a day for the death of all "heretics (minim)" - and then list who is a "min" according to the Halachah!

Now we all know that all of this is nonsense, and that without proper context, depth of understanding, and clarification, those quotes - each one 100% accurate totally misrepresent Judaism, even though they are correct quotes, and correct laws.

Take the statement in the Gemora that a girl less than 3 years old is permitted...it makes Jews out to be child molesters! But that quote is thoroughly not meant in that way.

Anti-semites have done this to Jews throughout history, and it has caused the deaths of countless innocent Jewish soul hy"d. And we are appalled at the base evil that doing such a thing entails. It’s the lowest of the low. But now the Zionists are taking lessons from the anti-semites and doing the exact same thing to others.

Of course the Quran has anti-semitic things in it! And of course the Moslems believe that those who do not follow their religion are inferior! But the question is: IS THAT what is motivating Arabs to kill Jews? That is a totally different question, and to that, the answer is absolutely no, because those beliefs were not meant to be used that way.

And of course there are Arab-Moslems who will use their religion as an excuse and a reason to kill Jews --- just as there are Jews who do the same thing by twisting the Torah -- like the Zionists who are currently preaching the nonsense that all Arabs are assumed to be Amalek! I am not kidding - there are Zionist rabbis who are really preaching this. And people like Meir Kahane who use the Torah to create his anti-Torah and anti-Jewish philosophy of violence and hisgarus b'umos.

What you need to do is, to open your eyes and see that the only Moslems who are saying these sort of things - the only ones who have become our mortal enemies - are the Arabs, even though they comprise a SMALL MINORITY of the followers of Islam. The Pakistani guys you see in America are also Moslems (many of them anyway). The ones who own the gas stations and the groceries in OUR neighborhoods -- their attitude toward the Jews is NOT the same as the Arabs. But they are both Moslems.

But just as many Jews do not know or understand the difference between Arab and Moslem, there are many, many Arabs who do not understand the difference between Judaism and Zionism. They believe, because this is what Zionists tell the world - that JUDAISM is what they represent, and so, their acts and the acts of the "Jewish State" represent Jews and Judaism.

And THAT is why the Arabs hate Jews. Because they think that Judaism includes Zionism. Their fight is with Zionism -- they just believe - as do many Jews - that that is part and parcel of Judaism. How can you blame them? Check this out - it’s from Webster's Third New International Dictionary:

antisemitism, anti-semitism
\n, usu cap S 1: hostility towards Jews as a religious or racial minority group often accompanied by social, economic, and political discrimination - compare RACISM 2: opposition to Zionism : sympathy with opponents of the state of Israel.

After all the anti-semitic quotes from the Arabs, it is only those Moslems who have a political conflict with Zionists over the in the middle east that want to kill Jews and it is only after that conflict was started by the Zionists that they became our enemies.

It’s not Moslems - its ARABS that have become bloodthirsty killers of Jews, meaning, those who have a political conflict with Zionism. The current lethal Arab animosity toward Jews has nothing to do with Islam - and the Zionist hatred and animosity toward Arabs has nothing to do with Judaism.

Here is a typical piece of Zionist propaganda, a very common Zionist claim, from http://www.yahoodi.com/peace/antisemitism.html :

Historically, the Islamic world's orientation to genocide against the Jews has not been limited to idle phrasemaking. Even before Israel came into existence in 1948, on November 28, 1941, the Grand Mufti of Jerusalem, Haj Amin, met in Berlin with Adolph Hitler. The subject of their meeting was "the final solution of the Jewish Question". This meeting, which followed Haj Amin's active organization of Muslim SS troops in Bosnia, included the Mufti's promise to aid German victory in the war. Later, after Israel's trial and punishment of Nazi war criminal Adolph Eichmann in 1961, Iranian and Arab newspapers treated the mass murderer as a "martyr", and congratulated him for having "conferred a real blessing on humanity" by liquidating six million Jews.


The following was authored by Imaam Yahiya Emerick, President of the Islamic Foundation of North America:


According to Sharia Law, an armed struggle can be initiated only for the following reasons:

-to defend your community or nation from aggressors.
-to liberate people living under oppressive regimes
-to remove any government that will not allow the free practice of islam within its borders.

Any war for conquest or glory is forbidden in islam.

"There is no compulsion in religion" -Quran 2:256 ; forced conversion is not legitimate.

An individual Muslim religious figure is not authorized by Islamic law (sharia) to tell his followers to go and fight, because the main principal of Islamic government is mutual consultation, known as Shura. Given that their is no worldwide islamic government or forum as once was (the Caliphate), most of the islamic groups engaging in armed struggle have no legitimacy to Islamic law.

Muslims who are living in a non-muslim society are bound by sharia law to live peacefully with their neighbors so long as no injustice is being done to anyone. Crime and vice must be opposed regardless.

Given that Islam recognizes that Jews and Christians received authentic prophets and revelations in the past, the Quran uses a special title to separate them from mere idolaters.
(What status does the Torah give to gentiles?) The term is Ahl al Kitab, or people of the book. It is an allusion to the fact that Jews and Christians received Holy Books from God long before and can be counted on to have certain ideas and concepts that are similar to Islam's.

The People of the Book have such an elevated status that, according to Islamic Law, a Muslim man is allowed to marry a practicing Jewish or Christian woman. (And he is not allowed to force her to convert or curtail her religious freedom.) In addition, meat prepared by Jews and Christians based on their religious dictates (the kosher standard) is permissible for Muslims to eat.

Many of the verses in the Quran concerning Jews were directed to 3 specific Jewish tribes in Medina, Banu Nadir, Banu Qaynuqa, and the Banu Quraiza.

It is not the concept of being Jewish that the Quran calls into question:

"Rest assured that Muslims, Jews, Christians, and Sabians- whoever believes in God and the last day and performs good deeds- will be rewarded by their Lord; they will have nothing to fear of regret."-Quran 2:62

The Quran maintains that all people are equal in God's sight and that it was only in the strength of their faith that they could be judged.

The Quran refers to the Synagogue as a place of God:
"If God didn't check one set of people by means of another there would surely have been pulled down monasteries, churches, synagogues, and mosques in which the name of God is commemorated in abundant measure." _Quran 16:118

Islam does not teach its followers to discriminate against Jews. When a Jewish funeral procession was passing by him in Medina, Muhammad stood up in respect for the deceased.

The history of Islam from Muhammad's time until the advent of the 20th century is one of tolerance toward Jews and Judaism. Even as Jews were persecuted in Europe during the Middle Ages, they always enjoyed political and religious freedom in Islamic societies. The greatest example of that is found in the period known as the Golden Age in Spain. From the 8th century until the 15th century, Muslims ruled nearly all of Spain and a small sliver of France. During that time, Jewish citizens of the empire had rights nearly equal to their rights in America today. Jewish historians refer to the time their people lived in Muslim ruled Spain as the Golden Age of Judaism.

Jews were also prominent in the courts of Baghdad, Cairo, Istanbul, and elsewhere, being palace physicians, finance officers, and even Viziers, or government ministers. The Islamic Millet, or Sectional system, operated to the benefit of religious minorities by setting up an official board of people from every religion who ruled over their coreligionists according to their own religious laws. (Non-Muslims are exempt from following many aspects of Islamic Law).

In recent times, however, political conditions have cast a pall over Muslim-Jewish relations that never existed before. The tension of the Arab-Israelis conflict has divided Muslims and Jews irreparably, it seems. However, recent efforts have been made to heal some of the mistrust, and tentative steps towards peace may yet restore amicable relations between the followers of the world's two purest monotheistic religions.

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Arabs II

Here's the problem. The Arabs did occupy the land prior to '48 and it was taken away from them against their will. That’s a problem, and the Torah leaders were against it. However, the fact is that currently there are about 5 millions Jews living in Eretz Yisroel surrounded by bloodthirsty Arabs, and, even though the Arabs were made bloodthirsty because their land was taken from them, it would be disastrous to give the Arabs any land if doing so would result in the deaths of the Jews currently residing in Eretz Yisroel.

Will giving the Arabs land appease them or undermine the safety of the Jewish residents of Eretz Yisroel? And if so, how much land? Who knows? There are opinions either way. Rav Shach ZTL writes that he himself is not certain, but he is certain that if giving up land will result in peace, that is definitely the way to go.

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How is going to war going to stop the bombings, as opposed to just generating more? You'll also have to explain how you can "win" such a war, in which your opponents are dispersed within the civilian population, including women and children.

Trying to use leverage - or war - to squash your opponent into submission only works if you have a way to stop him from doing what he is doing. If not, then the question "should I let..." is an error, since it is based on a false assumption, the same as the question "Do you still beat your wife?"

People are terrified of not being in control, of being helpless. So even when they are helpless and not in control, their instincts tempt them to lash out at the problem even if by doing so they will just make the problem worse. Because even though the problem itself will not get better, their feeling of helplessness is relieved by them doing something, thereby making them feel as if they are in control.

For example, if someone's traveling 60 MPH on the highway and suddenly hits a patch of ice and starts skidding, his instincts tell him to slam on the brakes, but doing so will just make it worse. The reason for the desire to do so, however, if the sudden grip of fear and helplessness that engulfs the driver as the car skids, and his first, gut reaction is to alleviate that feeling of fear and out-of-controllness by slamming on the brakes.

But the feeling of helplessness is not what his attention should be focused on - that will not kill him, though it is terribly uncomfortable. The problem itself needs to be addressed.

So when a parent finds himself helpless and not in control, they reflexively "slam on the brakes" - tighten the screws on the kid - because they are using their feeling of helplessness as the gauge to determine how helpless they really are, which is a mistake. Their psyches are attacking the feeling rather than the issue.

They feel better by talking as if they have the ability to "not let" their kid do what they are doing. It takes away the terror of their being helpless and not in control. but it just backfires, since it addresses the feeling not the cause of the helplessness.

The same thing is happening here. People feel helpless because of the suicide bombers ys"v. It’s a terrible, terrifying feeling to not be safe in your own back yard, for your life to be subject to the whims of a vicious and merciless enemy.

And of course that’s understandable. But there comes with that feeling a temptation to act to alleviate the feeling, even if such action will just make the problem itself worse. Its natural.

So people want to strike back and "kill kill kill" because they refuse to feel helpless and imprisoned in their own land.

But even though war will make people feel like they are not helpless and they are in control, it will not stop the cycle of violence. Israel has had one war every 10 years, on the average, since its existence - and they have one every one of them - but it has not helped stop the violence.
There is no way to stop what's going on through war. You can’t kill all the Arabs in the Middle East. The solution, if there is one, has to lie somewhere else.

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You obviously can't just give back the Medinah to the Arabs because they have been, and continue to be whipped into a blood thirsty, anti-semitic frenzy by the Zionists, and thus doing so would cause a bloodbath r"l - but, as the Satmar Rav wrote, if the Zionists would not be interested in Zionism but rather simply in saving Jews we could start now to implement a plan of peace-making that would eventually culminate in the slow dismantling of the State of Israel under international peace keeping efforts. Of course, best case scenario this theoretical solution will take a generation to implement, which would include a major educational enlightenment both in Israel and the Arab world, since both sides are blind with hate and demonetization of the other side. But of course, this is also not going to happen because the Zionists are in fact Zionists who value the State of Israel and not the blood of Jews. This was the exact situation that Rav Yochanan ben Zakai was in when he said to Aspasyanus that he would gladly make peace and give him whatever he wants, but the Baryonim will not allow it. The Baryonim will kill anyone who tries to make peace with the Romans, he said. So, too, the Zionists will not allow Jews to make peace with the Arabs, and have in fact murdered those such as Dr. Dahan, who was sent by Rav Yosef Chaim Zonenefeld ZTL to try to make peace with the Arabs.

So if you want to talk about the reality, here it is: The Baryonim are in power, they continue to fan the flames of anti-semitism both in the Arab world and everywhere else; and now, one of the Bayonim ask me: Now that we the Baryonim are in power and will not allow any peace between us and the Arabs, and we will continue to create more and more enemies for Jews and continue to irresponsibly instigate the nations of the world against us, why don't you deal with that reality and help support the arsonists who burn down Klall Yisroel? Don't we share the same fate?"

The reality is that unless something unexpectedly changes in the reality landscape - and miracles do happen, Hashem yaazor - we are past the point that peace can be made. As Rav Yochanan ben Zakai said - we can no longer make peace so long as the Baryonim are in power, but perhaps we can do hatzalah purtah - save something, even if the churban is going to happen.

So, too, hatzalah purtah in our situation is doable. First, we should not under and circumstances, defy the world powers. We need their support in order to survive - that means Israel and Jews in general - and so the Torah tells us hisgarus b'umos will only backfire. That means everything from not defying American orders to Israel to not publicly booing off the stage Israel's best friend in the American government - Paul Wolfowitz - because he said that there are tragic deaths taking place both in Israel and by the Arabs as well. Such Jewish defiance - the defiance of the sheep spitting the face of 70 wolves - is suicidal. Israel, like a scrawny little weakling confronted by a gang of muggers on a street corner, should do whatever he needs to do to elicit the assistance of a big brother. In any case, he should not run around screaming racial slurs in Harlem where he lives. Jews have to keep a low profile in Golus. The lower the better. Both history and the Torah teach us that. The more we are in the headlines the more we are in danger.

Second: We should do whatever we can to eliminate and disable the militant movements among the Jews who put us in danger. Rav Elchonon Wasserman paskened that they are rodfim - people who put Jewish lives in danger, and so must be emasculated at all costs. People who flex their muscles in the name of Jews and Judaism to the Arabs, all but challenging them to come kill more Jews, are murderers, and Jewish blood is on their hands.

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Nobody is telling Arafat kol hakavod for killing. That is simply slander. When they protest along with the Arabs it is wrong, but they are not promoting the killing of anyone - on the contrary - they are telling the Arabs that they want all the killing to stop, and that they would gladly give back the entire country for peace, which is the same thing that Rav Yochanan ben Zakai told Aspasyanus. (The problem is, giving back the land will not make peace!). And the Arabs are fully aware that this is their position. Many Arabs have stopped hating Jews because of this, and one suicide-bomber wannabe even decided, because of them, not to go through with her mission. The hostages in Iran were given miraculously lenient sentences largely because of the efforts of these people explaining to the Iranian authorities that the hostages are not Zionists and therefore not the enemy.

The Zionists did indeed generate the lethal animosity of the Arabs, the way the Baryonim did with the Romans - and they are trying to undo that. Unfortunately, the situation is not the same as it was then - the Zionists have created a much bigger danger than the Baryonim ever did, since they succeeded in convincing the world that "the Jews" want to own Eretz Yisroel, which even the Baryonim could not do with the Romans. It is ironic that the Neurei Karta's error is that they underestimate the evil that the Zionists have accomplished.

The reality is, the existence of those Jews meeting with Arafat are covered in just about every Arab newspaper, magazine, and website - and across the board, they interpret those Jews to be interested in peace, against all killings, including and especially that of Jews, but against the Jewish control of the land. Popular opinion is what the Baryonim surely said about Rav Yochanan ben Zakai sneaking out of the city against the "army's" orders and greeting the enemy, even calling their general "King". The Baryonim even tried to kill RYB"Z rather than let him do this because it went against their policy of not giving back Jerusalem.

So too, by the way, did the Zionists murder Dr. Dehan when Rav Yosef Chaim Zonenfeld sent him on a peace mission to the Arabs to explain to them that the Jews are NOT interested in taking the land from the Arabs, and that we do not support the acts of the Zionists.

The reality is that the Arabs want to kill the Jews for the same reason that the Indians wanted to kill the settlers - they took their land, plain and simple. And just as it didn’t matter that England wanted a "Jewish home" in Palestine, it also didn’t matter that England wanted colonies in America. We were warned by our Gedolim in pre-Israel times that if the Zionists do indeed take the land, it will be more of a deathtrap r"l than a safe haven.

G-d told us not to do it; our Tzadikim warned us to listen to G-d. Let us be grateful to Hashem that He has not punished us the way He has punished the Bnei Efraim for violating the same sin. Let's be grateful to Him for the "miracles" that He sends to save Jewish lives, despite His warning that if we make a Jewish State, He will "allow us to be hunted down like game in the field". We should thank Hashem for being ma'arich ahf - and at the very least, show Him, in gratitude for the "miracles" that He has shown us, that we do not support that which G-d opposes or those who oppose Him.

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The Arabs are not all bad people. (Of course, I am referring to bad beyond the existentially required imperfections of living without Torah, and the Halachah of Esav soneh etc. which applies not only to Arabs) But they have been -and are being poisoned - by both the teachings of their Palestinian leaders which say that Jews are intrinsically evil, as well as the inflammatory rhetoric of the many misguided Jews, which says that Jews believe that Arabs are intrinsically evil, and the misguided Zionists who say that they have some kind of G-d given right to make the land into a Jewish State whether the Arabs living there like it or not.

It is difficult to outsmart your upbringing. In America we believe that the English were evil in 1776; in England they believe that the colonists were low and grubby ingrate insurgents. In Israel they believe all Arabs are evil; in Palestine they believe all Jews are evil.

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Not all Arabs hate Jews. So many do, and it is not because of their religion. If it were, the religious ones (Muslims) would hate Jews more than the non-religious Arabs, but it's not so. Arafat isn’t even religious! That's right, he is not a practicing Muslim. Not in the slightest. He is even married to a Christian! The whole thing is political. The Arabs are hateful because their land was taken from them, the way the Indians were hateful to white people. The only problem is, those who are responsible for taking the land and making a State falsely told the world - and the Arabs - that they represent Jews and Judaism. Even though Judaism is a religion, not a political party, and the religious Jews did NOT want to take the land and make a Jewish State (except for the Mizrachi) and those that did want the State were not practicing Jews at all, and even anti-Judaism, for political and financial reasons, they went around presenting themselves as the representatives of Jewry.

They still do this. When Sharon gets indicted for war crimes in Lebanon, he says "This is an attack on all Jews!". Ah, no, Ariel, it's not. It's an attack on YOU. I have nothing to do with what you did in Lebanon, and neither does anyone else.

It's a Zionist trick to say all attacks on their policies and actions constitute anti-semitism.

The world gets sick of this, and hates Jews more when this happens. Nobody can say boo about Israel doing something wrong because then you’re an anti-semite. The world hates this, and hates Jews more because of it.

So the Arabs - like many nations in the world - falsely believe that all Jews and Judaism are responsible for the fact that their land was taken. So they hate Jews.

Of course, this does not justify terrorism and killing innocent people. But this is the reason behind the hate.

Before the Zionists came to Israel, the Arabs and Jews got along together relatively well. In fact, we were better off living with the Arabs than we were living in Europe. The Arabs treated us much better than the Christians, until the Zionists came along.

What we can do is two things: One physical, and one spiritual. The practical advice comes from the Satmar Rav ZTL (Divrei Yoel, Naso) and the spiritual from Rav Shach ZTL (Michtavim Umaamarim, vol. I sec. 1).

Physical: We should let the world know that we do not support any actions that are against the Torah, including the actions of the Zionists. We should try as hard as we can to dismantle the propaganda that Jews are responsible for what happened in the middle east. World Jewry and Judaism are not responsible for what the Zionists do and have done, they are not responsible for the acts behaviors and polices of the State of Israel, and the State of Israel does NOT represent Jewry or Judaism.

It's like when a Jew is lets say convicted of embezzling millions of dollars. And he says "I represent all Jews in the world. An attack on me is an attack on Jewry and Judaism. Never again!" And as a result, the world hates Jews.

What would we do? We would say Hello, we have nothing to do with this guy. Judaism does NOT condone stealing and we are not responsible for what this guy did, we preach not to steal and we can’t help it if we have people who disobey the Torah.

And if a murderer would say he represents Judaism, we would say we have nothing to do with this.

And so since the taking of the land and creating a Jewish State was, too, against the Torah, and it is that which caused all this danger for Jews (Even the Zionists admit that it was the creation of Israel that made the Arabs into enemies - see Five Addresses, Rav Soloveichik, p.79), therefore we should say that Jews are not responsible for the Arab problems, and we are not responsible for the occupation of the territories, we are not responsible for anything but our own actions, leave us alone, we didn’t start this fire. Your fight is political - Zionist Nationalists vs. Arab Nationalists, not religious. Jews are not part of this. We are concerned about the lives of our brethren, the Jews, NOT the political or nationalistic success or failure of any State or government that we were against to begin with.

There are Arabs, even, who know this. Many of them have been preaching lately that their fight is not with Jews or Judaism, it is a political/nationalistic fight with Zionist aspirations, not Jewish ones. And that Jews are not the enemy.

We would think that when Arabs talk like this we would be happy - there were Germans that spoke like this and saved Jews - we all know of some family or another who was hidden in the attic of some German who believed that Jews aren't evil - but the Zionists won't let the Arabs let Jews off the hook.

In the Jewish Press a while ago, a professor Howard Edelson wrote about some Palestinian woman who wrote an article in a college magazine saying that Judaism is not Zionism, that Zionism is the enemy not Judaism, etc.

Well Professor Edelson wouldn't have a Palestinian saying that Jews are not the enemy, so he made sure to explain (to who? the Palestinian readers of the JP?) that Judaism indeed is the culprit here and that Jews have a G-d-given "right" to Eretz Yisroel (even in Golus), and that they have a moral and legal right to determine everything pertaining to Eretz Yisroel, and that, basically, Jews are the bosses, and nobody else has a say in the matter.

This kind of Hisgaros B'Umos, and flaming the fires of anti-semitism puts Jews all over in danger. We need to counter this. We don’t have to take responsibility for a war that we didn’t start, and policies that we don’t have, and people who do not follow our behaviors.

And any Arabs that say Jews are not bad should not be discouraged. Every German family that saved a Jew in the holocaust allowed a whole new generation to survive. Whoever saves even one Jew is as if he saved an entire world. Pushing Jews into the line of fire like that professor did is something that we cannot tolerate. The lives of our brothers is our most important concern.

The spiritual advice:

We must eradicate from ourselves many idolatrous attitudes. The main one is Kochi V'Otzem Yadi - the idea that we are physically strong. The truth is, Jews in Golus are weak. Hashem caused the Yom Kippur War "without a doubt" in order to rid us of the idea that Israel is strong. The Arabs did stupid things and lost the war, but Israel was on the verge of being defeated, Israel was weaker than the Arabs - but Hashem made the Arabs slip up, due to no credit on Israel's part. Israel just got lucky. Hashem did this to show that Israel isn’t strong - the "idea that Tzahal is an undefeated army has been shattered to bits".

We need to disabuse ourselves of the idea that Israel can defend itself. Only Hashem protects us - not soldiers, not anyone. And to "flex our muscles" at the nations just creates anti-semitism and endangers Jews. We must be subservient to the nations in Golus, not annoy them, and accept whatever troubles the Golus and the nations unfortunately meet upon us; physical resistance only backfires. We must oppose any idea that defies the Nations of the world, even if we Jews are right. We must not do anything to cause anti-semitism in the world, even in the form of raised oil prices because of the Jews, for such things fan the flames of hate. "The State of Israel is not the people of Yisroel - and even if something may be in the best interests of the State of Israel, it may not be in the best interests of the people of Yisroel." For instance, if Israel defies America’s commands, they are putting the Jews of America in danger. We are not a self-ruling nation in Golus that we can say "America says this, we will say differently". We are in Golus, America is not. We must not defy or fight the nations of the world, for that creates anti-semitism and puts all of Klall Yisroel in danger.

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Arabs I

Here is a quote from the "Five Addresses", by Rabbi Joseph B. Soloveichik, p.79:

"There has always existed a hatred of the Jew amongst the peoples of the world. Whoever was in power, Esav or Yishmael, Christians or Moslems, they pursued us. Nonetheless, in the history of Jewish persecution the Moslems were always relatively better then the Christians. We do not find tragedies such as the Jewish martyrology at the time of the Crusades, the Spanish Inquisition, or the Chemelnicky massacres, in the annals of our communities in Islamic lands.

"The position has now been radically reversed. While among the Christians one hears voices of soul searching, tens of millions of Moslems, in particular Arabs, have become Amalekites and Nazis who have engraved on their banner the call: 'Come, let us cut them off from being a nation; that the name of Israel may be no more a remembrance" (Ps. 83,5) - far be it. It is unnecessary to dilate on this; we all know the facts.

"What has brought about the wave of hatred that has engulfed the Moslem world? We all know it is the founding of the State of Israel."

And the following is from a pamphlet called "Facts About Israel: History", published by the Israel Information Center of the Israeli Information Center in the U.N., p.22:

"The Jewish national revival and the efforts of the Jewish community to rebuild the country were opposed from the outset by extreme Arab nationalists. Their strong resentment erupted in periods of intense violence in 1920, 1921, 1929, and 1936-1939 . . . Attempts to reach a dialogue with the Arabs, undertaken early by the Zionist endeavor, were ultimately unsuccessful. Henceforth, Zionism and Arab nationalism were polarized into a potentially explosive situation. Recognizing the opposing aims of the two national movements, the British, who had already once partitioned the territory under the Mandate (1922) recommended a further partition (1937), dividing the land west of the Jordan River into two states, one Jewish and one Arab. The Jewish leadership accepted the idea of partition and empowered the Jewish Agency to negotiate with the British government in an effort to reformulate aspects of the proposal. The Arabs were uncompromisingly opposed to any partition plan."

So "we all know" that the Arab hatred to the Jews is because of the founding of the State. Just imagine what a holocaust the Arabs would cause if they were to win power over all of Eretz Yisroel tomorrow. But it wasn't always like that. The Arabs did own Eretz Yisroel for about 400 years (from 636 - 1099 CE), beginning just 4 years after the death of Muhammad. During that time, the Arabs did NOT run around killing Jews. In fact, at the beginning of the Arab rule, the Jewish settlement in Jerusalem was resumed, and the Jewish community was given permission to live in peace with property rights and freedom of religion in return for paying extra taxes -- which was the same way the Muslims treated all non-Muslims under their rule.

Later, additional restrictions against non-Muslims made Jewish life economically difficult, and many left the country.

Compare that to what would c"v happen if the Arabs were to take over rule of Eretz Yisroel today. The difference is then, there was no Zionist movement.

Or compare it to how the Christians treated the Jews when they took control of the land from the Arabs in the year 1099 CE.

In July 1099, the Crusaders captured Jerusalem after a 5 week siege and massacred most non-Christians living in the city. The Jews were burnt to death or sold into slavery.

The Crusaders proceeded from there to continue their bloody carnage all over the country.

Except for the five years that Saladin the Kurd grabbed dominion over the land from the Crusaders (the Crusaders took back the land in 1193 after Saladin's death), the Jews lived with no freedom and in constant terror. It was the Muslim Mamluks that conquered the land from the Crusaders in 1291 CE who finally rid the Jews of their bloodthirsty Christian rulers.

No, the Arabs are not the natural enemies of the Jews. They are the most bloodthirsty today, to be sure, but it was not always this way, nor did it have to be. Unfortunately, because of the Zionists, we are now all in grave danger at the hands of murderous enemies.

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Since the Arabs unfortunately were convinced by the Zionists that all Jews want Israel, and are willing to kill or expel Arabs in order to get it, and have actually done so, the Arabs have therefore become bloodthirsty enemies of all Jews, because of their error that all Jews are Zionists.

And although it is surely a good idea to tell the Arabs that we have no interest in killing them or taking their land, or expelling them from anywhere, and that those who say such things do NOT represent Jews or Judaism or the Torah but rather Zionism and Zionists, until the time when that mission has succeeded, and the Arabs do indeed understand that Jews are not their enemies and that their hatred is misdirected, we cannot endanger Jewish lives by returning the State by political means. And since having the State is a sakanah as much as giving it back, the only solution is for Hashem to intervene and do this "with power from on High." There is no long-term, permanent political or military solution to the Zionist vs. Arab problem, where all Jews have been caught in their crossfire.

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The Zionists (and Martin Luther King) went around telling people that they represent Jews and Judaism, which told the Arabs that Jews and Judaism wants to go to war with them for the land.

The Arabs are being taught that all Jews are cruel tyrants who want to kill Arabs and take their land.

And Jews are being taught that all Arabs are terrorists that want to kill all the Jews.

They are both evil lies, but unfortunately, they are self-fulfilling prophecies. The more the Arabs hear the lies about Jews the more they hate them, since they believe that they have a legitimate reason to. And the more the Jews hear the lies about the Arabs, the more they hate them, for the same reasons.

To the point where, today, the hate on both sides is so deeply entrenched, I don’t know how it can be eradicated. Good Jews I know tell me, when I tell them that it was wrong to boo Wolfowitz off the stage when all he said was that innocent Palestinians are also being hurt - which is true - and even if you don't want to hear it, why denigrate your best friend in the government (Wolfowitz is exceptionally pro-Israel). The answer I hear from many is "There are no such thing as innocent Palestinians!". Wow.

But if we keep on talking like this, eventually it will be true.

There is no question that the Arabs now want to kill Jews - but that is because they were told - by Zionists and Arabs both - that the "Jews" hold they are entitled to the land and Arabs have to go - plus every action of the Israeli government and military - and with that assumption, hatred grows.

None of this of course justifies the killing of Jews - even if you hate someone, you can't murder them! But as the cycle of mistrust and hatred grows on both sides, it becomes more and more impossible to even have peace.

And without peace, more and more Jews are going to die, c"v.

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The Arabs are fully aware of the following quotes - which are published in both Arab and Israeli sources! Arab - to prove that the Jews are vicious enemies who want to throw them out of their land. And Israeli - to show how they are not intimidated by Arabs threats and how they will defend themselves against terrorism and attacks from the Arabs.

“The Palestinians are like crocodiles, the more you give them meat, they want more.” (Ehud Barak, Aug. 28, 2000 — when he was prime minister — reported in the Jerusalem Post August 30, 2000.)

“The Palestinians are beasts walking on two legs.” (Menahim Begin, in a speech to the Knesset, quoted by Amnon Kapeliouk, in “Begin and the Beasts” (New Statesman, June 25 1982.)

“When we have settled the land, all the Arabs will be able to do about it will be to scurry around like drugged cockroaches in a bottle.” (Raphael Eitan, chief of staff of the Israeli Defense Forces (New York Times, April 14, 1983))

“How can we return the occupied territories? There is nobody to return them to.” (Prime Minister Golda Meir, March 8, 1969.)

“There was no such thing as Palestinians, they never existed.” (Golda Meir, June 15, 1969)

“The thesis that the danger of genocide was hanging over us in June 1967 and that Israel was fighting for its physical existence is only bluff, which was born and developed after the war.” (Israeli Gen. Matityahu Peled, Ha’aretz, March 19, 1972.)

“If I were an Arab leader, I would never sign an agreement with Israel. It is normal; we have taken their country. It is true God promised it to us, but how could that interest them? Our God is not theirs. There has been anti—semitism, the Nazis, Hitler, Auschwitz, but was that their fault? They see but one thing: We have come and we have stolen their country. Why would they accept that?” (David Ben Gurion — the first Israeli prime minister — quoted by Nahum Goldmann in Le Paraddoxe Juif (The Jewish Paradox), pp121.)


Ben Gurion also warned in 1948: “We must do everything to insure they (the Palestinians) never do return.”

Also from Ben Gurion, in response to the question about what they will do with the Palestinian refugees: “The old will die and the young will forget.”

“Every time we do something you tell me America will do this and will do that. I want to tell you something very clear: Don’t worry about American pressure on Israel. We, the Jewish people, control America, and the Americans know it.” (Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, Oct. 3, 2001, to Shimon Peres, as reported on Kol Yisrael radio.)

“We declare openly that the Arabs have no right to settle on even one centimeter of Eretz Israel... Force is all they do or ever will understand. We shall use the ultimate force until the Palestinians come crawling to us on all fours.” (Rafael Eitan, chief of staff of the Israeli Defense Forces — Gad Becker, Yediot Ahronot, April 13,1983, New York Times, April 14, 1983.)

“We should prepare to go over to the offensive. Our aim is to smash Lebanon, Trans-Jordan, and Syria. The weak point is Lebanon, for the Muslim regime is artificial and easy for us to undermine. We shall establish a Christian state there, and then we will smash the Arab Legion, eliminate Trans-Jordan; Syria will fall to us. We then bomb and move on and take Port Said, Alexandria and Sinai.” (David Ben-Gurion, May 1948, to the General Staff (From Ben-Gurion, A Biography by Michael Ben-Zohar, Delacorte, New York 1978))

“We must use terror, assassination, intimidation, land confiscation, and the cutting of all social services to rid the Galilee of its Arab population.” (Israel Koenig, “The Koenig Memorandum”)

“Jewish villages were built in the place of Arab villages. You do not even know the names of these Arab villages, and I do not blame you because geography books no longer exist. Not only do the books not exist, the Arab villages are not there either. Nahlal arose in the place of Mahlul; Kibbutz Gvat in the place of Jibta; Kibbutz Sarid in the place of Huneifis; and Kefar Yehushua in the place of Tal Al-Shuman. There is not a single place built in this country that did not have a former Arab population.” (Moshe Dayan, address to the Technion, Haifa, reported in Haaretz, April 4, 1969.)

“We walked outside, Ben-Gurion accompanying us. Allon repeated his question, ‘What is to be done with the Palestinian population?’ Ben-Gurion waved his hand in a gesture which said ‘Drive them out!’” (Yitzhak Rabin, leaked censored version of Rabin memoirs, published in the New York Times, Oct. 23, 1979. 18.)

“There are some who believe that the non-Jewish population, even in a high percentage, within our borders will be more effectively under our surveillance; and there are some who believe the contrary, i.e., that it is easier to carry out surveillance over the activities of a neighbor than over those of a tenant. (I) tend to support the latter view and have an additional argument:...the need to sustain the character of the state which will henceforth be Jewish...with a non-Jewish minority limited to 15 percent. I had already reached this fundamental position as early as 1940 (and) it is entered in my diary.” (Joseph Weitz, head of the Jewish Agency’s Colonization Department. (From Israel: an Apartheid State by Uri Davis, p.5.))

“Everybody has to move, run and grab as many hilltops as they can to enlarge the settlements because everything we take now will stay ours... Everything we don’t grab will go to them.” (Ariel Sharon, addressing, as foreign minister, a meeting of the Tzomet Party (Agence France Presse, Nov. 15, 1998))

“It is the duty of Israeli leaders to explain to public opinion, clearly and courageously, a certain number of facts that are forgotten with time. The first of these is that there is no Zionism, colonization or Jewish State without the eviction of the Arabs and the expropriation of their lands.” (Yoram Bar Porath, Yediot Aahronot of July 14, 1972.)

“Spirit the penniless population across the frontier by denying it employment... Both the process of expropriation and the removal of the poor must be carried out discreetly and circumspectly.” (Theodore Hertzl, founder of the World Zionist Organization, speaking of the Arabs of Palestine, Complete Diaries, June 12, 1895 entry.)

Please note that the above quotes are widely known both among Israelis and Palestinians.

And they stir up nationalistic pride in both Israelis and Palestinians.

And they make both Israelis and Palestinians hate each ever more.

And I didn’t even start with quotes from Kahane. (The difference is, though, Kahane was illegalized by Israel. The above rhetoric was not.)

Our Gedolim warned them about saying things like this. The Torah holds that such statements cause Jews to be killed, and generates anti-semitism around the world.

No, not all Palestinians are terrorists. Many just want to live a normal life in peace. And you will find statements like that among many Israelis, including in the government. But there are enough of those who say all Arabs want to kill all Jews because it is their nature, that the more rational voices are drowned out.

And not all Jews are tyrants. But there are so many Palestinians saying that we are all evil, that any semblance of reason that could have hopefully reared its head is shot down immediately. Especially since the only "government" there is Arafat, who is a terrorist, how in the world are the rational voices going to be heard? And how long will they be able to survive?

(A few weeks ago, Arafat actually wrote a letter saying that he is aware of the difference between the "beautiful values of Judaism and the peaceful relationship between Jews and Arabs throughout history" versus aggressive Zionism. But nobody there, including the coward Arafat himself, will publicize it.)

The whole thing is a big mess. The Arabs want to kill or drive out Jews and the Jews want to kill or drive out Arabs. None of this would have happened if we would have listened to the Gedolim.

The only question is, now what do we do?

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TRUTH AND PEACE

The "Holy Land", upon which the eyes of the L-rd our G-d are from the beginning of the year until the end of the year, the land from which comes forth blessings for all the peoples, and in which the prophets of the L-rd foresaw the promises of the future and the perfection of all humanity, and from which they called for the peace of all creation, has groaned and cried for two years because of pain and insult, and it soil, which is permeated with holy memories of purity of heart and morality of character, has become a witness to racial hatred and strife between neighbors. And the atmosphere of spiritual life is filled with suffocating clouds which poison every understanding heart, and remnant of human love.

The prolonged controversy and distention is repelling the Divine Presence and is removing G-d forbid, the blessing of the L-rd from the beautiful and bountiful land, which is destined and assured by providence. And in its place come aching souls, quarrels between brothers, scheming hearts, lack of faith and trust in the L-rd, and mistaken and misleading suspicions of one another.

As one of the leaders of the "Holy Land", who has been privileged, with G-d's help, to be in this land, now nearly sixty years, and who has been an eyewitness to years of tranquility, security and complete peace between the inhabitants, I permit myself to turn to all the inhabitants of the Holy Land, regardless of race or religion, the people which the Divine Providence has given the privilege of dwelling in the land which is holier than any other land, to ask them, from the depths of my broken and said heart to have pity upon the bountiful land and upon the various ethnic groups that dwell in it, to come together to rebuild the moral ruins and to re-establish the broken fragments of humane feeling and divine ethnics, which have been ruined and shattered during the last few years.

Uproot every grudge from your hearts. Remove the suspicions that come from false prophecies and seductions which nest there, and pave the road to peace. The heads of the Jewish People in the Holy Land will be the first to call for peace, and the hearts of the leaders and heads of the Arab People will in turn be aroused to the restoration of peace to the people.

The blessing of the L-rd will accompany the goodwill of the inhabitants. It will enrich and crown this will with success and saturate the holy ground with the dew of life. And may we be privileged to see the new light which the L-rd will cause to shine on Zion, and nations will go by His light.

As the entreaty of one who awaits and longs for heavenly mercy,

Yosef Chaim Zonenfeld

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