Author: sybok

ethnostate: /‘eTHno,stat/. A sovereign state of which citizenship is restricted to members of a particular racial or ethnic group. —Oxford Dictionary.

apartheid: /‘ə-ˈpär-ˌtāt  -ˌtīt /. specifically : a former policy of segregation and political, social, and economic discrimination against the non-white majority in the Republic of South Africa

NOTE: The extreme racial segregation of apartheid lasted from 1948 to 1994 and included such restrictions as where people of certain races (see RACE entry 1 sense 1a) could live or own land, what jobs they could hold, and who could and couldn’t participate in government.

For more of my insights regarding Israel and “Palestine,” click HERE.

I created this t-shirt:

CafePress rejected the design. They claimed it was anti-Semitic. Really, they did. Here is the dialogue I had with them:

CafePress reeplied:

Then I replied:

And then they said:

So, it sounds like actual people reviewed it.

Now we know why don’t won’t let me use it.

On the “Jews are Tired” FB group, I was told my design was “anti-Semitic, that it called for genocide, Makes me think that the people who are posting such utter tripe are members of Jewish Voice for Peace, a group that the ADL has identified as terrorists sympathizers.

Yet, there are worse designs on CafePress:

I guess it all depends on who you are.  Now, for sure I got the same kinds of treatment on the FB group “Humboldt Progressives,” but I expected it there (it got so bad I left the group). There are only a handful of Jews on that group, though, they at least were sympathetic, unlike the Progressive trolls that dominated the conversation.

Here’s a use of “From the river to the sea” that I think is even more clever than mine. This is a screen shot from a Pro-Israel rally held in Manhatten this past weekend.

For more of my insights regarding Israel and “Palestine,” click HERE.

I would be the first person you would expect to state that everyone has the right to practice whatever religion they choose. That, even after what I am about to reveal here, is still true. I am not an Islamaphobe.  When I lived in Israel (about 11 months, Kibbutz Nahsholim), I knew some Moslem people. They lived in a neighboring village and amongst members of our Kibbutzim and residents of that village, we held many joint diners and other events. We traded with them, collaborated with  then and some of our members even married into their families and theirs into ours.  They were nice, good people and very good neighbors. So what I am about to reveal is not something I am particularly happy about sharing.

In all of the countries that are ruled by Moslems, practically all of them are dictatorships. None of them abide by basic human rights and some of them have some especially heinous practices.

Misogyny:  All of the Abrahamic faiths have elements of misogyny. In fact it is mainly the most fundamentalist examples that practice it.  But this article is about Islam so let’s go into it:

Following is a list of things that Muslim girls are taught:

• Women can’t speak during prayer to correct an Imam (men can) because their voices are too “distracting.” (This is based on the hadith, see “From Hadith – Regarding Concealment Of Voice During Prayer“)
• Women should lower their eyes in the presence of men.
• Women shouldn’t wear tampons, to preserve their “purity.”
• There are passages in the Quran that advocate beating disobedient wives (see this paragraph“In fact, the word in the Quran in 4:34 used for “beat” is “idreb.” It is a conjugate of the word “daraba” which primarily means “to beat, strike, to hit” – Hans Wehr Dictionary of Modern Written Arabic, page 538”).
• Polygamy is legal and practiced in many Muslim countries and permitted by the Quran

Saudi Arabia, where the laws and regulations are for the most part drawn from edicts in the Quran and where “religious police” (note that they aren’t called the cultural police) patrol the streets, harassing women for showing their ankles, preventing women from driving, enforcing the laws that prevent women from working or travelling without permission from a male guardian, and oh, don’t forget “beating young girls” to prevent them from escaping a fire because they weren’t wearing proper religious dress.

Women in some countries are expected (or required) to wear the hijab which is similar to the way Catholic Nuns used to cover their heads. Other countries require the burqa which totally covers a woman, and in extreme cases allows only their eyes to be seen.

In Saudi Arabia, until very recently, women were not allowed to drive a car.

In the Taliban’s Afghanistan, women are not allowed to go to school (at all) nor can they pursue a profession.  In the Palestinian state of Gaza (yes, it actually is a country and is self governing) women are not allowed to be doctors, nurses or work in any healthcare profession (this is evident from recent news feed video taken at hospitals in Gaza).

There are other things too, minor things. But probably the very worst practice is Female Genital Mutilation. Among some conservative Muslim communities  women are regarded as “unclean” and “not ready for marriage” unless FGM – the deliberate cutting or removal of a female’s external genitalia – is performed. Even though Egypt officially banned the practice in 2008, it is still practiced there.  Other Muslim (or predominantly Muslim) countries where FGM is practiced are Iran, Sudan, Iraq, Ethiopia, Gambia, Mali, Mauritania, Indonesia, Djibouti, Guinea, Guinea Bissau, Senegal, Yemen, Burkina Faso, Sierra Leone, among others.

Anti LGBQT laws: In Iran today, lavat (sodomy) is a capital offence and people are frequently executed for it. In Saudi Arabia, Sudan, Yemen and Mauritania, sodomy is also punishable by death.

In Gaza members of the LGBTQ community are (when discovered) thrown off the tops of buildings.

Among other Arab countries, the penalty in Algeria, Bahrain, Kuwait, Lebanon, Libya, Morocco, Oman, Qatar, Somalia, Tunisia and Syria is imprisonment – up to 10 years in the case of Bahrain. In those that have no specific law against homosexuality, gay people may still be prosecuted under other laws.

Freedom of Religion: Twenty-one of the Muslim-majority states are religiously repressive, meaning that the state governs according to an Islamist ideology through which it promotes and enforces a strongly traditional form of Islam and often violates the religious freedom of religious minorities and Muslim dissenters.

Slavery:  In the following countries slavery is lawful and practiced:  Eritrea, Mauritania, Saudi Arabia, Türkiye, Tajikistan, United Arab Emirates,  Afghanistan, and Kuwait.

Torture:  Muslim countries who routinely torture dissenters are Iran, Afghanistan, Sudan, Ethiopia, Iraq, Turkey, Syria, Egypt.

Reading over this list, I am astonished that there are so many American Progressives who support Islamic causses, and especially the Palestinian cause, which it left to fester, would surely produce an Islamic government that would practice many, if not most, or these practices.

 
For more of my insights regarding Israel and “Palestine,” click HERE.

Are you ready?

Should the Jews just pack it all up, return the land to the Arabs and return to their countries of origin?

If so. shouldn’t Americans do the same? 

That would be fair, don’t you think?

For more of my insights regarding Israel and “Palestine,” click HERE.

These days, what with the Hamas-Israel War happening, I find myself between a rock and a hard place. I want to show compassion for the suffering that Arabs in Israel have endured, but I also want to support the Jewish state. On the one hand, HAMAS, the terrorist group, committed a heinous act of war against Israeli citizens this past 7 October. One thousand four hundred  unarmed Israeli citizens, men, women and children were murdered wholesale.  Children were decapitated. Women and girls were raped.  Over two hundred were taken hostage and spirited away to Gaza.  There, we presume, they fact torture and rape.

Israel responded using their far superior air and military forces.  They began with air strikes against Gaza, quite possibly the most densely populated place on our planet.  Collateral damage is an obvious result. Eight thousand five hundred twenty five “Palestinians” have died. We can safely assume that at least half of this number were children.  This is true even though the IDF is very surgical with it’s operations, and they go to great lengths to try to avoid killing children or other civilians.  The IDF routinely makes phone calls to civilians in the war zone, and air drops fliers warning them to take cover or to evacuate.

The difference between the two warring parties is that Israel bends over backwards to save civilians, and HAMAS targets them, and even uses women and children as human shields.  They also set up their strike basses in schools, Mosques and hospitals.

In other words, HAMAS does not play fair. Israel does. Israel always has.

I’m a dad.  I grieve every time a child is hurt.  Children should not be caught in the cross fires of any military  conflict.  They deserve (no matter who their parents are) to live out their childhood in peace.  For that matter, we all deserve to live out our lives in peace.

So I find myself between the rock and the hard place.

On the one hand, I sympathize with Arab children and their parents, the victims of Israel’s defense, as well as the Jewish victims of HAMAS.  Both sides deserve our compassion.

On the other hand I don’t honestly know what else Israel can do. This is a grim situation which will not get better with the passage of time.

The one thing I do know is that heinous lies have been told and spread about Israel. Lies like Israel has been committing genocide against the Arabs for the past seventy five years.  That Israel is engaged in ethnic cleansing. That Israel is an Apartheid state.  That Israel stole the land from the Arabs.  That Zionism is a colonialist endeavor.  I have addressed these elsewhere on this blog, so i won’t use up ink to do so again.  But this is all propaganda. Lies told to elicit an emotional response.  In some cases the actual definition of words has been changed or flipped on their ear in order to bludgeon the Jewish state with words.

Israel’s greatest sin?  The possession of superior fire power. Because of this, in the end Israel will be triumphant and Palestine will be left in the dustbin.  This is a shame, because there is no logical reason why the two sides cannot live side by side as neighbors and friends.  The fact is that Jewish and Arabic people would prefer this.

There are of course radicals and zealots on both sides, both spewing their propaganda. “War is Peace.” ‘Love is Hate.”  “Lies are the Truth.”

I wish both sides would just shut the fuck up.

For more of my insights regarding Israel and “Palestine,” click HERE.

There is a lot of propaganda circulating these days concerning Israel.  Much of it is mostly just hateful, blood libel types that have been going around for three thousand years against Jews, but now are applied to Israel.  Some are just conspiracy theories, the type of thing that guys wearing tin foil hats repeat. Others are just designed to evoke an emotional reaction.  All of them represent the worst hatred toward Jews.

Here are the top six:

1. 1. Israel is conducting a military occupation.
      Usually this one is just applied to Judea/Samaria (aka, “the West Bank”).  But I’ve also seen it applied to the whole of the land of Israel, “from the river (Jordan) to the sea (Mediterranean).”
      Let’s examine some history:  Jews have lived in this part of the world continuously for over four thousand years.  Even after their last expulsion (by the Roman empire, circa 70 CE) there were always a few families that carried on in the land.  Between 1881 and 1924, with the beginnings of Zionism (1897) Jews began returning to their homeland in greater numbers, culminating at the end of World War II and Shoah (Holocaust). All of the land settled by Jews from 1901 onward, was purchased by the Jewish National Fund from wealthy Arab land owners who were only too happy to sell “worthless desert land” to the “foolish Jews.”  When the Jews began farming the land and utilizing science, irrigation and modern agricultural techniques, all of sudden charge that “the Jews stole our land” began to made,  One thing, the land had inhabitants that weren’t the owners.  Arab farmers had attempted to cultivate the land before it was sold out from under them by those Arab landowners. Nonetheless, the land was bought and paid for. Money changed hands. Deeds were written and transferred. None of the land of Eretz Israel was stolen from anyone.But, what about the West Bank? Didn’t Israel steal that land in the 1967 Six-Day-War?  Israel did not steal that land.  Prior the 1948 Arab-Israel War,  Judea/Samaria (it’s true name) had been purchased by the Jewish National Fund, and was settled by Jews.  But during the 1948 war, Jordan ceased that land, and it was Jordan that occupied it from 1948 until 1967.  That land was liberated by Israel in 1967, and returned to Israel.  It had always belonged to the Jews.  Further proof is that there are dozens of Jewish historical places throughout the “West Bank,” including Rachel’s Tomb, Eshtemoa Synagogue (4th-5th Century CE), Tombs of Joshua and Caleb, Hebron, Safed, Jerusalem, Cave of Machpeah, Cave of the Patriarchs, Jacobs Well, and scores of others.
      There is also the matter of the cemeteries.  There are some really ancient burial yards throughout Eretz Israel. Most date back three thousand years or more.  All of them have grave markers inscribed with Hebrew lettering.  The most prominent is in the Kidron Valley, the Silwan Necropolis, which lies outside of ancient Jerusalem’s Eastern Gate, and runs from the city wall and up the Mount of Olives. It has been in use since 1500 BCE.
      Bottom line, Israel does not illegally occupy Judea/Samaria (the “West Bank”) because it belonged to Israel prior to 1948.
   2. Israel is conducting Genocide (AKA “Ethnic Cleansing”) against the “Palestinians.”
      If this true, then the population of “Palestinians” would be dropping wouldn’t it?  Or, maybe this is something Israel is just not good at?  In 1948, at the end to the first Arab-Israel war, Arabs numbered 156,000. Today, (October 30th  2023) Arabs number 7.503 million.
      Genocide? I think not.
   3. Israel is an Apartheid nation.
      Under Apartheid, there are certain rules that are applied to the minority population.  They cannot intermarry outside their own group.  They cannot study abroad. They cannot become Doctors, Nurses or Teachers. They cannot vote.  They cannot have a job in the government, or even serve as representatives in Congress.
      Now, there are two classes of Arabs living within the boundaries of Israel. There are citizens of Palestine, and there are citizens of Israel.  None of the aforementioned restrictions apply to the Arab citizens of Israel. Many of these are Doctors, Nurses, and Teachers. All of them can vote in Israeli elections. Quite a few serve in government. Some are even members of the Knesset.  They can even marry Jews if  they can find a cooperative Jew to marry. As for the citizens of Palestine, they cannot vote in Israeli elections, not can they serve in the government. Other than that, they can still be Doctors, they can marry Jews.The charge of Apartheid mainly comes from the presence of the Security Wall that runs across Judea/Samaria, which restricts movements (of both Arabs and Jews) between parts of the area.
      Yes, it is ugly. And yes, it is very inconvenient for everyone. But it was built in an attempt to deter suicide bombings of Pizza Parlors, bus stops and schools, and frankly it has worked.  Suicide bombings are almost down to nothing since the wall was built.
   4. The Jews are white European Colonialists, who have displaced the indigenist Palestinians, much like what happened in America with the tribes there.133.5 million (74%) Jews came from the countries surrounding Israel in the Middle East and Africa. 45.5   million (25.3%) came from Europe, and there were an additional 1 million that were already living in Eretz Israel prior to any of these other immigrations.   Genetically, all Jews have carry genetic markers noting their origin in the Middle East.  Also, Jews are not white. They are a brown race, even though a few can pass as white.
   5. Israel stole ”Palestinian” land.
      As I have mentioned elsewhere in my blog, not one square mm of land was stolen from anyone.  All the land was purchased prior to 1947 by the Jewish National Fund from wealthy Arabic land owners who were only too willing to sell “worthless desert land” to the hapless Jews. Now it is true that some Arabs were evicted. This happens when land is transferred from one owner to another and it happens that tenants are dwelling there. It happens everyday in America. Why make a big deal out it happening in Israel?  Oh yeah. Jews.
   6. Gaza is an open air prison.
      That’s just stupid. But it’s also a kind of half-truth. A detailed article that goes into why this is not true can be found a this url: https://www.jpost.com/opinion/article-770411

For more of my insights regarding Israel, click HERE.