- Dear Mr. Rense
-
- Respecting the courageous and journalistic integrity
you have attained by the prolific panorama of articles you eclecticly produce
leads me to forward the attached article for your serious consideration.
-
- The impetus for this contribution arrives from an article
I just read on your site:
-
- Israeli Principal & Teachers Suspended
For Burning New Testament IsraelNationalNews.com
1-6-2
http://rense.com/general18/burnn.htm
-
- Upon reading in full the attached article, it will be
clear that a cult of religious bigotry has a "holier than thou"
reactionary and racist mindset among part of the Jewish population in Israel
and the United States.
-
-
- For example, I will paste a couple excerpts from the
following article (about Israel Shahak) to clarify this horrifying revelation:
-
- '...... Hasidism "declares that all non-Jews are
totally Satanic creatures" in whom there is nothing absolutely good."
Even a non-Jewish embryo is said to be qualitatively different from a Jewish
one. The very existence of a non-Jew is "inessential" whereas
all of creation was created solely for the sake of the Jews.
-
- The differentiation in appropriate treatment for Jews
and non-Jews to be found in Talmudic commentaries is, Shahak shows, not
simply an academic question. Instead, it relates to current Israeli government
practices which are justified by reference to religious law. > A book
published by the Central Region Command of the Israeli army, whose area
includes the West Bank, contains the following declaration by the command's
chief chaplain: "When our forces come across civilians during a war
or in hot pursuit or in a raid, so long as there is no certainty that those
civilians are incapable of harming our forces, then according to Halakah
[Jewish law] they may and even should be killed." "Under no circumstances
should an Arab be trusted, even if he makes an impression of being civilized.
In war, when our forces storm the enemy, they are allowed and even enjoined
by the Halakah to kill even good civilians."
-
- Another point that must be stated, well quoted:
-
- After being liberated from the Bergen-Belsen concentration
camp in 1945, Shahak and his mother emigrated to British Mandate Palestine.
-
- And I conclude in requesting that the HTML for the Washington
Report on Middle East Affairs <http://www.wrmea.com> be posted with
the following article, as well as, the link to this specific one. And BTW,
I have no affilation with WRMEA other than a reader, as with your wonderful
website.
-
- With appreciation,
-
- Bill Mitchell Malibu,
- California
-
-
-
- October 2001 Special Report Israel and Judaism
- With Israel Shahak's Death, A Prophetic Voice
Is Stilled
- By Allan C. Brownfeld
-
- The death of Israel Shahak in July has taken from us
a genuinely prophetic Jewish voice, one which ardently advocated democracy
and human rights, and rejected the ethno-centrism which has come to dominate
both the state of Israel and much of organized Judaism-not only in Israel
but in the U.S. and other Western countries as well.
-
- This writer first met Israel Shahak on a visit to Jerusalem
in 1973. We kept in contact ever since, meeting when he visited the United
States. He wrote a number of very thoughtful articles for Issues, a journal
which I edit.
-
- In many ways, Shahak was a victim of history who tried
to learn from his own experience and apply what he learned to others. A
Holocaust survivor, he preferred to emphasize his opposition to racism
and oppression in any form and in any country.
-
- After being liberated from the Bergen-Belsen concentration
camp in 1945, Shahak and his mother emigrated to British Mandate Palestine.
He went on to have a distinguished career as a professor of chemistry at
the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, and was repeatedly voted as the most
admired teacher by students.
-
- Following the 1967 war, Shahak became a leading member
of the Israeli League for Human and Civil Rights and was elected chairman
in 1970. He devoted the rest of his life to opposing Israel's inhumane
treatment inflicted upon its Arab citizens and upon Palestinians in occupied
territories.
-
- While American newspapers, both Jewish and general, completely
ignored the death of Israel Shahak, a July 6 obituary in The Guardian of
London by Elfi Pallis notes that, "Shortly after the 1967 six-day
war, he [Shahak] concluded from observation that Israel was not yet a democracy;
it was treating the newly occupied Palestinians with shocking brutality.
For the next three decades, he spent all his spare time on attempts to
change this. He contributed to various smallpapers, but when this proved
to have little impact, he decided to alert journalists, academics and human
rights campaigners abroad. From his small, bare West Jerusalem flat poured
forth reports with titles such as 'Torture in Israel,' and 'Collective
Punishment in the West Bank.' Based exclusively on mainstream Israeli sources,
all were painstakingly translated into English.
-
- Shahak never let up, he never became blasé. "World
coverage gradually improved, but Shahak never let up, he never became blasé.
Watching him read out a small news item about an Israeli farmer who had
set his dogs on a group of Palestinian children was to see a man in almost
physical distress. Shahak came to believe that these human rights incidents
stemmed from Israel's religious interpretation of Jewish history, which
led it to ignore centuries of Arab life in the country, and to disregard
non-Jewish rights. Confiscation, every schoolchild was told, was 'the redemption
of the land' from those who did not belong there. To Shahak, this was straightforward
racism, damaging both sides."
-
- Israel Shahak's vision can perhaps best be found in his
books, Jewish History, Jewish Religion (Pluto Press, 1994) and Jewish Fundamentalism
in Israel (Pluto Press, 1994) written with Norton Mezvinsky. (See Mezvinsky's
remembrance of Israel Shahak in the Aug./Sept. issue of the Washington
Report, p. 11.)
-
- In Jewish History, Jewish Religion, Shahak points out
that while Islamic fundamentalism is vilified in the West, Jewish fundamentalism
goes largely ignored. He argues that classical Judaism is used to justify
Israeli policies which he views as xenophobic and similar in nature to
the anti-Semitism suffered by Jews in other times and places. Nowhere can
this be seen more clearly, in his view, than in Jewish attitudes to the
non-Jewish peoples of Israel and the Middle East.
-
- Shahak draws on the Talmud and rabbinical laws, and points
to the fact that today's extremism finds its sources in classical texts
which, if they are not properly understood, will lead to religious warfare,
harmful to men and women of all religious beliefs.
-
- This book, Shahak wrote, "is, in a way, a continuation
of my political activities as an Israeli Jew. Those activities began in
1965-66 with a protest which caused a considerable scandal at that time:
I had personally witnessed an ultra-religious Jew refuse to allow his phone
to be used on the Sabbath in order to call an ambulance for a non-Jew,
who happened to have collapsed in his Jerusalem neighborhood. Instead of
simply publishing the incident in the press, I asked for a meeting with
the members of the Rabbinical Court of Jerusalem, which is composed of
rabbis nominated by the State of Israel. I asked them whether such behavior
was consistent with their interpretation of the Jewish religion. They answered
that the Jew in question had behaved correctly, indeed piously, and backed
their statement by referring to a passage in an authoritative compendium
of Talmudic laws, written in this country. I reported the incident in the
main Hebrew daily, Ha'aretz, whose publication of the story caused a media
scandal."
-
- The Talmudic World View In the end, Shahak reported,
"Neither the Israeli, nor the diaspora, rabbinical authorities ever
reversed their ruling that Jews should not violate the Sabbath in order
to save the life of a GentileIt became apparent to me, as, drawing on knowledge
acquired in my youth, I began to study the Talmudic laws governing the
relations between Jews and non-Jews, that neither Zionism, including its
seemingly secular part, nor Israeli politics since the inception of the
State of Israel, nor particularly the policies of the Jewish supporters
of Israel in the diaspora, could be understood unless the deeper influence
of those laws, and the world view which they both create and express is
taken into account."
-
- The Hatanya-the fundamental book of the Habbad movement,
which is one of the most important branches of Hasidism-declares that all
non-Jews are totally Satanic creatures "in whom there is nothing absolutely
good." Even a non-Jewish embryo is said to be qualitatively different
from a Jewish one. The very existence of a non-Jew is "inessential,"
whereas all of creation was created solely for the sake of the Jews.
-
- Shahak points out that a widespread misunderstanding
about Orthodox Judaism is that it is a "biblical religion," that
the Old Testament has in Judaism the same central place and legal authority
that the Bible has for Protestants and even Roman Catholics. He notes that,
"the interpretation is rigidly fixed-but by the Talmud rather than
by the Bible itself. Many, perhaps most, biblical verses prescribing religious
acts and obligations are understood by classical Judaism and by present-day
Orthodoxy in a sense which is quite distinct from, or even contrary to,
their literal meaning as understood by Christians or other readers of the
Old Testament, who see only the plain text."
-
- In the Decalogue itself, the Eighth Commandment, "Thou
Shalt not steal" (Exodus 20:15) is taken to be a prohibition against
"stealing" (that is, kidnapping) a Jewish person. "The reason,"
Shahak writes, "is that according to the Talmud all acts forbidden
by the Decalogue are capital offenses. Stealing property is not a capital
offense (while the kidnapping of Gentiles by Jews is allowed by Talmudic
law)-hence the interpretation."
-
- In numerous cases, Shahak shows, general terms such as
"thy fellow," "stranger," or even "man" are
taken to have an exclusivist and chauvinistic meaning. The famous verse
"Thou shalt love thy fellow as thyself" (Leviticus 19:18) is
understood by classical (and present-day Orthodox) Judaism "as an
injunction to love one's fellow Jew, not any fellow human. Similarly, the
verse 'neither shalt thou stand against the blood of thy fellow' (Leviticus
19:16) is supposed to mean that one must not stand idly by when the life
('blood') of a fellow Jew is in danger; but a Jewis in general forbidden
to save the life of a Gentile, because 'he is not thy fellow.'"
-
- The differentiation in appropriate treatment for Jews
and non-Jews to be found in Talmudic commentaries is, Shahak shows, not
simply an academic question. Instead, it relates to current Israeli government
practices which are justified by reference to religious law.
-
- A book published by the Central Region Command of the
Israeli army, whose area includes the West Bank, contains the following
declaration by the command's chief chaplain: "When our forces come
across civilians during a war or in hot pursuit or in a raid, so long as
there is no certainty that those civilians are incapable of harming our
forces, then according to Halakah [Jewish law] they may and even should
be killed.Under no circumstances should an Arab be trusted, even if he
makes an impression of being civilized.In war, when our forces storm the
enemy, they are allowed and even enjoined by the Halakah to kill even good
civilians."
-
- Many contemporary Israeli policies refer to Talmudic
rules. Thus, Shahak declares, "The Halakah forbids Jews to sell immovable
property-fields and houses-in the Land of Israel to Gentiles. It is therefore
clear that-exactly as the leaders and sympathizers of Gush Emunim say-the
whole question of how the Palestinians ought to be treated is, according
to the Halakah, simply a question of Jewish power; if Jews have sufficient
power then it is their religious duty to expel the Palestinians.Maimonides
declares; 'When the Jews are more powerful than the Gentiles we are forbidden
to let an idolater among us; even a temporary or itinerant trader shall
not be allowed to pass through our land.'"
-
- Jewish Fundamentalism In the book Jewish Fundamentalism
in Israel, Shahak and co-author Norton Mezvinsky lament the dramatic growth
in recent years of Jewish fundamentalism which has manifested itself in
opposition to the peace process and played a role in the assassination
of Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin and the murder of 29 Muslims at prayer
by the American-born fundamentalist, Baruch Goldstein.
-
- They cite, for example, Rabbi Yitzhak Ginsburgh, who
wrote a chapter of a book in praise of Goldstein and what he did. An immigrant
to Israel from the U.S., Ginsburgh speaks freely of Jews' genetic-based
spiritual superiority over non-Jews; "If you saw two people drowning,
a Jew and a non-Jew, the Torah says you save the Jewish life first.Something
is special about Jewish DNA.If a Jew needs a liver, can you take the liver
of an innocent non-Jew passing by to save him? The Torah probably would
permit that. Jewish life has an infinite value."
-
- Shahak and Mezvinsky point out that, "Changing the
words 'Jewish' to 'German' or 'Aryan' and 'non-Jewish' to 'Jewish' turns
the Ginsburgh position into the doctrine that made Auschwitz possible in
the past. To a considerable extent the German Nazi success depended upon
that ideology and upon its implication of being widely known early. Disregarding
even on a limited scale the potential effects of messianicand other ideologies
could prove to be calamitous.The similarities between the Jewish political
messianic trend and German Nazism are glaring. The Gentiles are for the
messianists what the Jews were for the Nazis. The hatred of Western culture
with its rational and democratic elements is common to both movements.
The ideologyis both eschatological and messianic.It assumes the imminent
coming of the Messiah and asserts that the Jews, aided by God, will thereafter
triumph over the non-Jews and rule them forever."
-
- It troubled Israel Shahak that the lesson many Jews learned
from the Nazi period was to embrace ethno-centric nationalism-just what
had created such tragedy in Europe-and to reject the older prophetic Jewish
tradition of universalism. He was particularly dismayed with the organized
Jewish community in the U.S. and other Western countries, which promoted
ideas of religious freedom and ethnic diversity in their own countries,
but embraced Israel's rejection of these same values.
-
- It was Shahak's view that bigotry was morally objectionable
regardless of who the perpetrator is and who the victim. He declared: "Any
form of racism, discrimination and xenophobia becomes more potent and politically
influential if it is taken for granted by the society which indulges in
it." For Jews, he believed, "The support of democracy and human
rights ismeaningless or even harmful and deceitful when it does not begin
with self-critique and with support of human rights when they are violated
by one's own group. Any support of human rights for non-Jews whose rights
are being violated by the 'Jewish state' is as deceitful as the support
of human rights by a Stalinist."
-
- In an article about his childhood for The New York Review
of Books, Shahak recalled listening to some Polish workmen talking during
the Nazi occupation. Discussing the situation, one young man defended the
Germans by pointing out that they were ridding Poland of the Jews, only
to be rebuked by an older laborer, "So are they not also human beings?"
It is a phrase that Shahak never forgot.
-
- During his life, Israel Shahak was rebuked, spat upon
and threatened with death for his defense of human rights. How long will
it take before he is recognized as a genuine Jewish prophetic voice in
an era when such voices were difficult to find? After all, as the Bible
tells us; "A prophet is not without honor, save in his own country,
and in his own house" (Matthew 13:57).
-
- Israel Shahak may be unlamented in his own country today,
but future generations may well look back to his example, much as contemporary
Germans do to figures such as Dietrich Bonhoeffer, the Lutheran pastor
who opposed Nazism and was executed for his part in the plot to assassinate
Hitler.
-
- Israel Shahak understood all too well the violations
of human rights and the human spirit all around him. He insisted on telling
that truth to his fellow countrymen and to the world, upholding a Jewish
tradition far older than that established in 1948.
-
- Allan C. Brownfeld is a syndicated columnist and associate
editor of the Lincoln Review, a journal published by the Lincoln Institute
for Research and Education, and editor of Issues, the quarterly journal
of the American Council for Judaism.
-
- http://www.wrmea.com/archives/october01/0110071.html
-
-
-
- Comment
-
- By Leif Ari Manson
lmanson@telusplanet.net
1-7-2
-
- Who Is My Neighbor?
-
- Dear Mr. Rense,
-
- Bill Mitchell's excellent tribute to Israel Shahak touched
a very personal chord with me, as it got to the heart of the loss of faith
I have experienced with Judaism over the past year.
-
- Both the Christian Messiah, Jesus Christ, (Yeshua BenMiriam)
and the great Jewish Rabbi of the same epoch, Hillel the Babylonian, are
in agreement that the central principle of the Torah (the Pentateuch-
the first five books of the Hebrew Testament) is straightforward:
-
- "Love your neighbour as yourself." (Leviticus
19:18)
-
- Since Aramaic had supplanted Hebrew as the language of
everyday life by the time of the Gospels, a question arose as to the precise
meaning of the Hebrew word "re'eh" which is usually translated
by gentiles as "neighbour" or "fellow".
-
- This very question was brought to Jesus, by "a certain
man versed in the Torah" who asked "Who really is my neighbour?".
-
- Jesus answered , in typical Jewish fashion by relating
the example of the Good Samaritan, and ending the tale with another question.
-
- "Who of these three seems to you to have made himself
neighbour to the man that fell among the robbers?"
-
- The Torah scholar answered correctly, "The one that
acted mercifully towards him" (Luke 10:25-37)
-
- In answering the scholar with the tale of the Samaritan,
Jesus arrived at a more elevated and spiritual answer to the question
than might have been deduced if He had examined the question in the more
usual Jewish fashion.
-
- The accepted method of deducing the meaning of archaic
or ambiguous Hebrew words is to look at the usage of the same words in
other portions of the Torah.
-
- If we follow this method, we will come up with two surprising
but universally recognizable definitions of who or what exactly constitutes
a neighbour.
-
- A neighbour is the person from whom we borrow expensive
tools with no intention of returning them!
-
- In the book of Exodus, the LORD commands the Hebrew slaves
to ask of their Egyptian neighbours, expensive tools, to be used in a worship
festival in the desert, even though the LORD knew that the Israelites
would not return to Egypt. This occurs in Exodus 11:1-2
-
- "the LORD said to Moses... Please speak in the ears
of the people: Let each man request of his neighbour and each woman from
her neighbour silver tools and gold tools."
-
- Furthermore, a neighbour is the person who takes a recently
widowed man on a "dirty weekend" and who procures a prostitute
for him!
-
- In the book of Genesis, chapter 38, we read:
-
- "At that time [after the abduction and enslavement
of Joseph], Judah went down from his brothers and turned away towards an
Adullamite man whose name was Hirah." (verse 1)
-
- "Many days passed and Shua's daughter, the wife
of Judah, died; when Judah was consoled, he went up to oversee his sheepshearers
- he and his Adullamite neighbour, Hirah - to Timnah." (verse 12)
-
- Judah met his widowed daughter-in-law, Tamar, at the
crossroads, and mistook her for a prostitute. He consorted with her, leaving
his staff and signet as a pledge for payment.
-
- Afterwards - "Judah sent the kid of the goats through
his neighbour the Adullamite to retrieve the pledge from the woman. (verse
20)
-
- On three occasions, we see the word "re'eh",
neighbour, being used in a mundane fashion that clearly equates to our
modern definition of a neighbour. As the Egyptians and Hirah the Adullamite
were neither Jewish nor Israelite, I cannot understand how so many modern
Orthodox rabbis can interpret the commandment to"Love your neighbour
as yourself" as applying exclusively to Jews. In fact I have often
heard this commandment translated as "Love your fellow Jew as yourself."
-
- It is deeply disturbing that such an interpretation can
find widespread acceptance among so many young American/Israeli rabbinic
students.
-
- I am a Canadian with Israeli citizenship, of mixed Jewish
and Scottish ancestry, and a veteran of the Israeli paratroops (1979-1981)
-
- In the summer of 2000, I fled an acrimonious divorce
(my wife's lawyer was nicknamed 'the pit-bull'), and returned to Jerusalem.
-
- I stayed at a Palestinian-owned hostel, the El-Malakh,
on HaMalakh Street (Angel Street), which forms the border between the Armenian
quarter and the Jewish quarter of Old Jerusalem.
-
- As a proud member of the International Union of Operating
Engineers (AFL-CIO), I could not help but become aware of the brutal ,
and systemic oppression of my Palestinian brothers in the construction
industry.
-
- The outbreak of the current intifadah on September 28,
2000, brought home that the Oslo accords were a dead issue and were not
going to change things.
-
- Certainly there was more hope that I could make peace
with my ex than there was for a Israeli-Palestinian peace.
-
- But what I find most distressing is that I was attending
lectures at a Jewish outreach centre in the Old City, Heritage House,
sponsored by the famous Aish HaTorah Yeshivah, where young American Rabbis
were promoting the interpretation that our only "neighbours"
were our fellow Jews. When I brought up the above two examples of what
a neighbour really is, these rabbis changed the subject.
-
- As long as that exclusivist attitude is so widely promoted,
there is little chance of peace with the Palestinians- who are ultimately
the people next door or across the street- the simplest definition of
a "neighbour."
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