Please understand that, especially with regard to political issues and the rightfulness and wrongfulness of the actions of nations, there are many different versions of history, min hakotzeh el hakotzeh. In America, the American Revolution is depicted as a fight for freedom against tyrannical suppressors, and in the UK the same event is taught as an insurgent uprising of an ungrateful rabble against their founders. The very facts themselves are totally different depending on which history book you are reading.
It's called propaganda. Every nation does not want to admit it committed sins, and certainly not that it was created in sin. So it will distort, twist, and even outright lie about history in order to serve its own political agenda.
And those who grow up in that country, or those who believe that country's version of history are going to accept the lies as truth.
Israel is no different. As a secular entity, the Israeli version of history is no more accurate, and no more reliable, than any other nation's version of history, be it Germany, France, America, or the Palestinians. There is no more honesty to be attributed to the heretical and immoral Zionist leaders than there is any other group of despots. The fact that Jews - even religious Zionist Jews - believe without question the Israeli/Zionist version of history as if it were "Jewish history" (it is even included in many religious Zionist Jewish History texts) is both a tragedy and a crime, and is one of the symptoms of the replacement of Torah perspectives with the non-religious, Zionist perspectives - just one more manifestation of the replacement of the Jewish (Torah) " nationalism" with Zionist nationalism.
If you want a real version of history, you will either have to do the objective research yourself, or rely on the words of our Gedolei Yisroel, who are able to recognize the petty propaganda tactics of secular political agendas.
And, not surprisingly, this chapter of history, when stripped of political agendas, propaganda, and revisionism, matches perfectly with what our Gedolim have told us about it as well.
Part of the Israeli/Zionist version of the relationship between the State and the holocaust runs something to the effect of:
Six million Jews were killed because the Jews had nowhere to run, nobody would let them in, and if they would have had a Jewish State there would not have been a holocaust; the State of Israel is necessary for the survival of the Jews because where else will they run if there is another holocaust.
"Before: anti-Semitism, wandering, persecution, holocaust, marching to death like sheep; After: State of Israel, protection, safety, identity, "normalization", strength, power, pride."
The real story is totally different. Not only would countless Jews have been able to immigrate to other countries if not for the Zionist lobby on other nations not to let the Jews in, and that they should either (a) emigrate exclusively to Palestine, or (b) die in the crematoriums. The very real option of escaping to other lands was often available but purposely foiled by the Zionists in order force the Jewish people - and the nations of the world - to support a Zionist State (this is documented in many places, see the eyewitness testimony of the great holocaust hero, Rav Michoel Ber Weissmandel in Min HaMetzar and his "Open Letter to the Zionists".)
But that’s just the beginning. The following is an excerpt from an article by Rav Yitzchok Hutner ZTL (he gave it orally; it was written over by Rabbi Yaakov Feitman, currently in Cedarhurst, NY) in the Jewish Observer, 10/77:
"It will be our task this evening to untangle the web of distortions about recent Jewish history, which has already been woven, and uncover the Torah perspective which has been hidden from us.
"To be sure, it will not be easy to regain this perspective. The thoughts that we will explore this evening will be difficult to digest because of our long subsistence upon the forced diet of public opinion. The creators of the powerful force of public opinion are beyond the realm of our control and the mind-numbing results of their influence are largely out of our hands. In order to achieve any hold on the truth, we will first have to free ourselves form the iron-clad grip of their puissance and open our minds and hearts to the sometimes bitter pill of truth...
An example of how public opinion can be molded - indeed warped - at the whim of powerful individuals can be taken from a study of Russian history textbooks published during the respective reigns of Lenin, Stalin, and Khrushchev ... Undoubtedly, "public opinion" during each period, once the childrens' minds had been suitably molded, reflected the thinking and the wishes of the state. While more subtle in form, this ability to direct public opinion exists in democratic countries as well. Thus, we already pointed out at the beginning that we must make every effort to free ourselves from the powerful grip of public opinion, and must be ever on our guard that our opinions of the true nature of world events be shaped only by Torah views seen through Torah eyes.
Sadly, even in our own circles, the mold for shaping public opinion lies in the hands of the State of Israel. And appropriate example of this dangerous process of selectively "rewriting" history may be found in the extraordinary purging from the public record of all evidence of the culpability of the forerunners of the [Jewish] State in the tragedy of European Jewry, and the substitution of factors inconsequential to the calamity that ultimately occurred.
To cover its own contribution to the final catastrophic events, those of the State in a position to influence public opinion circulated the notorious canard that Gedolei Yisroel were responsible for the destruction of many communities because they did not urge immigration. This charge is, of course, a gross distortion of the truth, and need not be granted more dignity than it deserves by issuing a formal refutation. However, at the same time as the State made certain to include this charge a historical fact in every account of the war years, it successfully sought to omit any mention of its own contribution to the impending tragedy. . . .
In 1923 Hitler wrote Mein Kampf . . . [which] was read by Haj Amin el-Husseini, the Grand Mufti of Jerusalem, who found most significant alliances of modern times. . . Not only did the Mufti visit Hitler and his top aides on a number of occasions, but indeed with Adolph Eichmann, he visited the Auschwitz gas chamber incognito to check on its efficiency.
The extent of the Mufti's influence upon the Nazi forces may be seen in a crucial decision made by Hitler at the height of the war. Railroad trains were much in demand by the Axis, and Hitler’s troops badly needed reinforcements in Russia. Yet, soon after he landed in Berlin in 1941, the Mufti demanded that all available resources be used to annihilate Jews. The choice: "Juden nach Auschwitz" or "Soldaten nach Stalingrad" was to be resolved this way . . . Two months later (Jan 20, 1942) at the Wannasee Conference, the formal decision was made to annihilate all Jews who had survived the ghettos, forced labor, starvation, and disease.
Of course, the mufti was serving his own perverted fears, which were the influx of millions of Jews into Palestine and the destruction of the Mufti’s personal empire. Yet, there can be no doubt that through their symbiotic relationship, Hitler and the Mufti each helped the other accomplish his own evil goal. Eichman simply wanted to kill Jews; the Mufti wanted to make sure they never reached Palestine. In the end, the “final solution” was the same ... At one point, Eichmann even seemed to blame the Mufti for the entire extermination plan, when he declared, “I am a personal friend of the Grand Mufti. We have promised that no Jew would enter Palestine any more.” . . .
It should be manifest, however, that until the great public pressures for the establishment of a Jewish State, the Mufti had no interest in the Jews of Warsaw, Budapest or Vilna. Once the Jews of Europe became a threat to the Mufti because of their imminent influx into the Holy Land, the Mufti in turn became for them the incarnation of the Angel of Death. Years ago, it was still easy to find old residents of Yerushalayim who remembered the cordial relations they had maintained with the Mufti in the years before the impending creation of a Jewish State. Once the looming reality of a State of Israel was before him, the Mufti spared no effort in influencing Hitler to murder as many Jews as possible in the shortest amount of time. This shameful episode, where the founders and early leaders of the State were clearly a factor in the destruction of many Jews, has been completely suppressed and expunged from the record. Thus it is that our children who study the history of this turbulent era are taught that the Gedolei Yisroel share responsibility for the destruction of European Jewry and learn nothing of the guilt of others who are enshrined as heroes.
End quote.
In the next issue, Rabbi Feitman demonstrates from secular sources that the “program of wholesale physical extermination [by Hitler of the Jews] began only after the Mufti’s arrival on the scene”. And that until mid-1941, the official German policy was forcing Jewish mass emigration from the Reich’s “vital space”. Only at the Wansee interdepartmental conference, 2 months after the Mufti’s arrival in Berlin, was the decree “kill all the Jews” formally made. Therefore, even if Hitler would have implemented the “Final Solution” without the Mufti’s urging, in a war that was being won by the Allies, there is no question that precious time was lost by the Mufti’s machinations.
The Zionists tried to make sure the Jews would not escape the anywhere but Palestine because they wanted a State; and the Mufti tried to make sure they would never reach Palestine because he did not want the State.
Rav Michoel Ber Weismandel writes that at the beginning, the Gedolim urged Klall Yisroel to take the “low key” response to Hitler’s decrees. AT the beginning, he writes, his evil decrees were no better or worse than other evil decrees that Reshaim had heaped upon us throughout history. That was terrible enough, and the response urged by the Tzadikim was the response that saved us throughout Golus – lay low, escape, but do not try to fight back as a sheep against the 70 wolves. That, Chazal say, is always counterproductive in Golus. In defiance of the Gedolim, the Jewish Zionist leadership in other countries including America heaped upon Hitler threats and declarations of defiance, in speeches and articles, even blowing the Shofar in front of the German consulate at a rally, declaring war on him in the name of Jewry. Chaim Weitzman announced on the radio a “declaration of war” against Hitler by the Jews. This incensed Hitler and just threw gasoline on the fire that was burning under the Jews in Hitler’s power. It was then, when Hitler heard this “declaration of war”, that he went into one of his epileptic seizures and cried out “Now I will destroy them; Now I will destroy them”.
“Only through blood [Jewish blood!] – will the land be ours!” the Zionists said.
(For documentation of both the Zionist efforts – and success – in blocking the exportation of Jews to anywhere in the world since it would undermine their position of the Jews needing a homeland in Palestine, as well as their arrogant challenges to Hitler which only contributed to his insane resolve, see “300 Discussions With Hitler”, by Roeshing, “Post Ugandan Zionism” by S.B. Bais Zvi, also the writings of Hillel Kook and Kastner records, and more).
Then they lie, the Zionists, and say that it was the Tzadikim, the Gedolei Yisroel that caused the deaths of so many Jews – with a blood libel that they didn’t tell people to go to Israel.
As Rav Shach ZTL writes (Letters vol I, “Eretz Yisroel”) “Do not think that the holocaust came because there was no Medinah”. He points out that Hitler could have come into Palestine as surely as he went anywhere else – he was going to, but then BH decided to go to Russia. The Medinah does not protect us from anything – surrounded and hopelessly outnumbered by enemies, with weapons that can rain down upon a land and blow away whole cities at once, we should not think that the Medinah will protect us form a holocaust r”l. On the contrary, he writes, the Gemora says that it is a Chesed that Hashem spread Jews all over the world, as opposed to them being in any homeland, since they can’t be collectively targeted by their enemies.
---
Almost every middle-aged ashkenaz Jew in America today is the son of a holocaust survivor who came here from there - there were plenty of places for Jews to go; and while it is true that there were limits and doors closed on Jews escaping from the holocaust, that was largely because the Zionists lobbied governments not to let Jews in, and sabotaged many, many rescue and ransom attempts. Many more Jews would have been let in to many places, if it weren’t for the Zionists. And if it weren’t for the Zionists, the holocaust would never have been so bad to begin with. There are also opinions that Hitler was incensed to kill the Jews by the words and actions of Chaim Weitzman and his cohorts who declared war publicly on the radio against Hitler in the name of the Jews. The Jews of Germany were begging the Zionists not to instigate Hitler, but he kept going and going. And Hitler became more and more mad.
In short, as opposed to what the Zionists claim, the State of Israel and Zionism were contributing factors to the deaths of six million Jews in the holocaust, and obstacles to their rescue. If not for the Zionists, the entire holocaust period would never have been anything close to the horror that it was.
---
One million Jews went to Israel; we probably could have found place for them if not for the lobbying of the Zionists making sure that no country would let in the survivors. They foiled all attempts at rescue that they could, because they wanted all Jews to have to move to Israel. See the letters of Rav MB Weismandel ZTL, some of them quoted in the forum.
---
The Zionists decided that the State would make Jews "like all nations" and end anti-semitism. This of course, is baseless, and Kefirah against the Torah, since it attributes the cause of anti-semitism to the Jews being different than other nations, the opposite of the Torah's position.
Then, during the holocaust, they decided that having a State was the answer to prevent future holocausts.
This, too, was based on the "nihiyeh k'chol hagoyim" heresy.
They allowed, and even caused, on purpose, tens of thousands, and maybe more - of Jews to be killed in the Holocaust in order to be able to set up the claim that the Jews "need" a homeland. Many Jews could have been saved by escaping to other countries (who DID want to let them in, despite what the Zionist revisionists of history say), but the Zionists sabotaged the rescue efforts, because if Jews can be safe elsewhere, then who needs a Homeland? So in order to have their State they allowed, and caused, countless Jews to be gassed and tortured.
The Zionists had no interest in saving Jews. They had an interest in making a State. After all of this, they revisioned history, and produced the lies that the State saved lives, and the reason there was a holocaust was because there was no State, and it was the Gedolei Yisroel who caused the deaths of the Jews by discouraging emigration to Palestine etc. etc.
It's like a protection racket - I put you in danger then tell you that you need me to protect you, or else.
The Zionists know this is so. Or rather, "knew". Today, their false version of history is taught in all Modern Orthodox and Zionists institutions, and it is believed by tens of thousands of innocent Jews who have grown up on this poisoned "mother's milk." The reason it is so hard to tell Zionists that they are against the Torah even though it is clear as day, is because they have this block in their head that tells them "We need Israel or else there will be another holocaust".
Israel did not save us from a holocaust. Zionism was part of the cause, in the sense that Jews could have been saved in numerous ways if not for their direct efforts, as well as the effects of their threats and boycotts that enraged the enemy, as well as the making a deadly enemy out of the Mufti (who, prior to the Zionist threat to his regime, got along peacefully with the Jews in the Old Yishuv - see Rav Hutner quoted above).
The more level headed ones - such as Rav Soloveichik and others - concede that the State causes deaths of Jews but it is "worthwhile."
And beside all of this, we are not talking about making a State, we are talking about the above poster's religious position that he would gladly give his life for the State. For Shabbos, he would not give his life; for Kashrus, also not. But for the State, he would. That is plain Avodah Zorah. Even Eretz Yisroel can become an Avodah Zorah if you wrench it out of its Judaic context and give it your own, Nationalistic one, complete with new "halachos" and values, such as "dying for your homeland."
---
The following are translated excerpts of a speech by Rav Boruch Kaplan ZTL, survivor of the Chevron massacre (Rav Kaplan was principal of Bais Yaakov in Boro Park, and the husband of Rebitzen Vichna Kaplan a"h, the founder of Bais Yaakov in Maerica).
“When I was in Hebron in 1929, there occurred the tragic massacre of over twenty yeshiva students, great scholars, plus another forty members of the Jewish community. I would like to describe the error that has circulated in Jewish communities – a horrible error, that accuses the Arabs in Hebron of being murderers who attacked the Jews simply because the Arabs were “bad people.” In order to correct the record, this error must be corrected. The Arabs were very friendly people, and the Jewish People in Hebron lived together with them and had very friendly relations with them. They worked for Jews, and everybody got along just fine.
To take just one example, I used to have the habit of walking a mile or two out of town all by myself to visit a tree that was believed to be the tree where our patriarch Abraham met the three angels, as described in Genesis. I especially enjoyed visiting the tree in the summertime. Along the way I would talk to the Arabs, though it was mostly using our hands because I didn’t speak any Arabic. Interestingly enough, no one in the yeshiva ever told me it was dangerous to go by myself among the Arabs. We just lived with them, and got along very well.
I have also seen a letter from the Grand Rabbi of the Gerrer Hassidim of those days, Rabbi Avraham Mordechai Alter of Poland, regarding his trip to the Holy Land during the days when people were talking about emigrating to Palestine. He wanted to find out what kind of people the Palestinians were, in order to be able to advise people whether to move there or not. He wrote in his letter that the Arabs were a very friendly and fine people.
Therefore it’s necessary to set the record straight about the accusations that the Palestinians were terrible killers who liked attacking Jews. This was never the situation at all!
Today’s wicked Zionists are just like their predecessors, who were responsible for causing terrible suffering in Palestine with their wars with the Arabs, may G-d have mercy. At that time in 1929, the Zionists had a slogan arguing that the Western Wall in Jerusalem was a Jewish “national symbol.” Of course, the Arabs disagreed with this idea, considering that they had control of the location for over 1,100 years. However, the Zionist mobs were yelling that “The Wall is ours!” It’s hard to understand why they felt that way considering they have no connection to the Jewish holy places whatsoever. An argument erupted in the Jewish newspapers about establishing a permanent prayer area for Jews at the Wall. This provoked the Arabs, and the rabbi of Jerusalem at the time, Rabbi Yosef Chaim Zonnenfeld begged them to stop and to be appreciative to the Arabs for allowing Jews to pray at the Wall for so many centuries undisturbed. However, the Zionists wanted a permanent setup under their control.
The Zionists refused to heed the calls of Rabbi Zonnenfeld, and they called a large meeting of Jews in Jerusalem – supposedly some 10,000 people showed up. One of the speakers was their “chief Rabbi” (Avraham Isaac Kook), who proclaimed, “Hear O Israel, the Wall is our Wall, the Wall is One” (which is a ridiculous pun on the blessing, “Hear O Israel, the Lord your G-d, the Lord is One”). This began the conflict at the time between the Zionists and the Arabs.
Afterwards, we were studying at the yeshiva in Hebron, and saw a bunch of boys in short pants carrying weapons on bicycles and motorcycles, running around the streets of Hebron. We were very worried about this. What were they up to?
In brief, our rabbi, the supervisor of our religious academy, Rabbi Moshe Mordechai Epstein, called them for a meeting, but they refused. He was forced to go over to them, and asked them what they were up to. He accused them of wanting to provoke the Arabs. They responded that they were coming to protect us!! We cried out, “Woe is us! G-d have mercy!” They didn’t want to leave town until it was too late!
These arrogant cowards only ran away when the local leaders of the Arabs called for a mass meeting of the people of the surrounding Arab villages. But it was too late; the Arabs got organized, and the Mufti called on his people to be ready Friday night when the yeshiva would be attending prayers. At this point, the yeshiva was alone against the Zionists, but the Arabs didn’t know to distinguish between us and the Zionists. Sadly they attacked and killed some of our people, including the great scholar, Rabbi Shmuel Rosenhaltz.
The next morning we heard about the excitement in town, and even worse, we heard the crying and shouting. I and a friend, Avraham Ushpener, lived in an apartment that was part of a three-story building leased by a Jew from an Arab. We could hear all the noise from our apartment on the third floor. We were terrified to let the Arabs in because we knew how angry they had become, but a while later things calmed down. In total, some 65 people were killed. On the other side of town, however, the Jews were spared.
Why am I telling this story? It is because I wanted to describe how the wicked Zionists, both today and in those days, were the cause of our suffering!
It reminds me of an event recounted by Rabbi Moshe Schonfeld, who once visited Rabbi Avraham Yeshayahu Karelitz {Chazon Ish) when the Zionist state was established, and when there was fighting between the Zionists and the Arabs. Rabbi Schonfeld told Rabbi Karelitz about what was happening. Rabbi Karelitz told him that the crimes of the Zionists were much worse, because they were wicked heretics who were uprooting hundreds of thousands of Jews from their faith and that is much greater pain since our Sages stated that a person who causes another person to sin is much worse than if he kills him.
The Arabs were a friendly people to us, and I am a witness to it. We lived very well with them in Hebron. Rabbi Alter attested to this as well, and it is the accursed Zionists who caused them to hate us.
Everyone should know who the murderers are – the Zionists are the biggest murderers in the world, who refuse to let the Jewish People live in peace either physically or spiritually!”
Someone sent me the following pertinent article:
http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/History/hebron29.html
Some relevant excerpts that duplicate details of Rabbi Kaplan's tale almost word for word:
For some time, the 800 Jews in Hebron lived in peace with their tens of thousands of Arab neighbors. But on the night of August 23, 1929,... and for 3 days, Hebron turned into a city of terror and murder....the survivors were relocated to Jerusalem, leaving Hebron barren of Jews for the first time in hundreds of years...Jewish immigrants were arriving in Palestine in increasing numbers, further exacerbating the Jewish-Arab conflict...The Sephardi Jewish community in Hebron had lived quietly with its Arab neighbors for centuries.... [Slabodka] Yeshiva students lived separately from the Sephardi community, and from the Arab population. Due to this isolation, the Arabs viewed them with suspicion and hatred, and identified them as Zionist immigrants. Despite the general suspicion, however, one yeshiva student, Dov Cohen, still recalled being on "very good" terms with the Arab neighbors. He remembered yeshiva boys taking long walks late at night on the outskirts of the city, and not feeling afraid, even though only one British policeman guarded the entire city...Rabbi Slonim, who had tried to shelter the Jewish population, was approached by the rioters and offered a deal. If all the Ashkenazi yeshiva students were given over to the Arabs, the rioters would spare the lives of the Sephardi community. Rabbi Slonim refused to turn over the students and was killed on the spot...A few Arabs did try to help the Jews. Nineteen Arab families saved dozens, maybe even hundreds of Jews.
---
Labels: Zionism
