Category Archives: Israel

Murdered Jews as Political Fodder at Election Season in America and Always in Israel

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The senseless death of innocent people is always a tragedy.

The deliberate murder of people in a house of prayer born out of hatred is pure evil.

And when the heinous act is coupled by the murderer’s proud chants of annihilation, decent people of the world cannot help but be sickened.

Unless it is election season in America, or every day in the Middle East.

Neighbors React:
Non-Jews in the Middle East and in America

The slaughter of Jews praying in a synagogue in Pittsburgh, PA in October 2018 is reminiscent of the murder of rabbis in the Har Nof neighborhood in northwestern Jerusalem in 2014. Two Arab terrorists walked into a shul clutching an axe and butcher cleaver shouting “Alahu Akbar,” while worshipers were reciting the silent Amidah prayer. They killed five people.

Here is how the Arab neighbors reacted to the crime, as reported from Australia:

 “A reporter from the Israeli television network, Channel 2, went to the Arab neighbourhood of Jabel Mukaber in the south-eastern pocket of the city [Jerusalem], where the two terrorists had lived, to gauge the reaction of the Palestinian residents to the atrocity. The reporter said he could not find a single person to condemn the attack. Instead, the murders were praised and celebrated.

The Jordanian parliament observed a minute’s silence – in honour of the terrorists. Palestinian media was awash with cartoons and graphics lauding the slayings. Hamas called the attack “heroic.” Several employees of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA), employed as teachers by the U.N., praised the murders as “wonderful revenge” and prayed for the terrorists to be accepted in “paradise” as “martyrs.” On the streets of Gaza and in the West Bank, sweets were handed out in celebration and loudspeakers used for calls to prayer were blaring words of praise for the murderers.”


Victim in Har Nof slaughter, 2014

Fortunately, in the United States, the hatred of Jews is neither so open nor widespread as in the Middle East. Jew and non-Jew acted as one in condemning the anti-Semitic act. The American Muslim community raised money for the victims’ families and survivors.

In America, Jews are considered fellow citizens; people who are friends and neighbors. People, all bound in common humanity.

However in Israel, Jews are not viewed as people, but as Zionists. Many non-Jewish neighbors see them as occupiers who do not belong in the land. The slaughter of Jews praying quietly to their God is a welcome farewell to the aliens who descended on Arab land.

Shockingly, that view is not just held by non-Jews in Israel about Israeli Jews, but also by non-Jews in America about Israeli Jews.

One of the Muslim groups that raised money for the Pittsburgh Jewish community was MPower Change, co-founded by vocal anti-Zionist Linda Sarsour. Sarsour has condemned anyone associated with Israel and rebuked anyone attempting to “humanize” Israelis.

Anti-Zionists in the Middle East and around the world are not against some policies of the government of Israel; they are against the presence of Jews in their holy land.

The United Nations Reacts

The murder of Jewish worshipers should be easy to condemn clearly and unequivocally, even in the swamp of politics that is the United Nations.

And it was… in the case of Jews being killed in the United States. The UN said of the killings in Pittsburgh:

“The Secretary-General is deeply shocked at and strongly condemns the shooting today at the Tree of Life Congregation synagogue in Pittsburgh in the United States.  He expresses his deepest condolences to the families of the victims.

The shooting in Pittsburgh is a painful reminder of continuing anti-Semitism.  Jews across the world continue to be attacked for no other reason than their identity.  Anti-Semitism is a menace to democratic values and peace and should have no place in the twenty-first century.

The Secretary-General calls for a united front — bringing together authorities at all levels, civil society, religious and community leaders, and the public at large — to roll back the forces of racism, anti-Semitism, Islamophobia and other forms of hatred, bigotry, discrimination and xenophobia gaining strength in many parts of the world.”

What a difference from the statement from the Secretary General in 2014 after the slaughter in the synagogue in Har Nof:

“The Secretary-General strongly condemns today’s attack on a synagogue in West Jerusalem which claimed four lives and injured several persons. He extends his condolences to the families of the victims and wishes the injured a speedy recovery.

Beyond today’s reprehensible incident, clashes between Palestinian youths and Israeli security forces continue on a near daily basis in many parts of East Jerusalem and the West Bank. The Secretary-General condemns all acts of violence against civilians. Attacks against religious sites in Jerusalem and the West Bank point to an additional dangerous dimension to the conflict which reverberates far beyond the region.

The Secretary-General calls for political leadership and courage on both sides to take actions to address the very tense situation in Jerusalem. All sides must avoid using provocative rhetoric which only encourages extremist elements. In this regard, the Secretary-General welcomes President Abbas’ condemnation of today’s attack.

The steadily worsening situation on the ground only reinforces the imperative for leaders on both sides to make the difficult decisions that will promote stability and ensure long-term security for both Israelis and Palestinians.”

A single bland comment about the butchering of Jews. And then politics, politics, politics.

The 2014 UN statement was almost a blessing for the violence as it rationalized the cold-blooded murder of innocents. It politicized their deaths. For the UN, there was no anti-Semitism in Arabs walking into a house of Jewish prayer yelling “Allahu Akbar” chopping up Jews. Just a political dispute in which the UNSG called upon “both sides to take actions.”

Seriously? “Both sides?”

The world came down harshly on President Trump for his statement after the Charlottesville neo-Nazi march and protest that equated the two sides after a person was run over in the confrontation. Yet not one media outlet, not one political party, not one organized or spontaneous protest was launched against the vile statement by the UN Secretary General who equivocated about the deliberate anti-Jewish intent of the Arab terrorists.

Politicization of Murdered Jews

Decent people are rightly outraged at the politicization of the killings in Pittsburgh. There is a desire to mourn and show solidarity for the victims, and to show anger against the hatred that fueled the meditation massacre. People did not want to hear the anti-Republican theatrics before election season, which CNN did.

Americans object to victims being used as pawns to score political points. They note that the people in the synagogue were 100% innocent and the murderer was fueled by pure evil. Dragging politics into such a dynamic was ugly. Even for politics, it was horrid.

However, when it comes to Jews living in Israel, there is seemingly no compunction in politicizing their murders. For anti-Zionists, a Jew living in Israel cannot be viewed as an innocent person in their homes. The basic fact that a Jew has the temerity of being in Israel is an affront. An Israeli Jew cannot be innocent of anything, even standing in prayer.

For the anti-Zionists, like former UN Secretary General Ban Ki Moon who made the vile statement in 2014, Israeli Jews are inherently a problem. Their physical presence in the land is an anti-Arab declaration. Without a word, without a step, Jews in Israel defy Arab sensibilities. These Jews are not like other Jews around the world. They really don’t belong.

Outside of Israel, Jews are just Jews. People who want them dead or gone are clearly identified as anti-Semites to be condemned. But in Israel, anti-Zionists consider every Jew as inherently anti-Arab, so the desire to kill Jews or expel them is something “natural” as the Arabs “resist” the interlopers in their midst. It is not the Arab that is an anti-Semite, it is the Israeli Jew who is anti-Arab.

People in America are rightfully angered at the politicization of slaughtered Jews before election season. Imagine how Israeli Jews feel every day.

Related First.One.Through article:

Nicholas Kristof’s “Arab Land”

New York Times Lies about the Gentleness of Zionism

It is Time to Insert “Jewish” into the Names of the Holy Sites

The Hebron Narratives: Is it the Presence of Jews or the Israeli Military

Germans have “Schadenfreude” Jews have “Alemtzev”

Abbas’s Speech and the Window into Antisemitism and Anti-Zionism

The New York Times Inverts the History of Jerusalem

A Response to Rashid Khalidi’s Distortions on the Balfour Declaration

What Kind of Hate Kills?

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CNN’s Politicization of Antisemitic Murder

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The heinous slaughter of Jews praying quietly in synagogue on their Sabbath is an abomination in every way. It is not just appalling because innocent people were killed, but that the murderer’s rationale was based on the hatred of Jews.

It is right and proper for society to prosecute the killer and explore ways to keep such crimes from happening again. What is not Okay is for politicians and the media to turn the tragedy into political points.

But politics has become a “win-by-any-means” endeavor these days, for the politicians AND the media.

CNN posted an article on October 29, 2018 called “The Pittsburgh killings targeted Jews — and America’s soul.” The important sentiment of the title hides the contents of the article which could have a sub-header “Republicans are the reason for hatred and murder in America.” It was an article specifically drafted to place the blame for the murder, and antisemitism in America generally, at the foot of the Republican party.

Some quotes from the piece:

  • “It is an increasingly urgent question whether President Donald Trump’s deliberately divisive politics may be giving license to extremists.”
  • “[Trump] has consciously stoked national divides, adopting a brand of politics that uses racial, nationalist rhetoric, rails against immigrants and refugees and equivocates about extremism — including after violence in Charlottesville, Virginia, in which white supremacist marchers chanted anti-Jewish slogans and a woman protesting their presence was killed.”
  • “[Trump] has used tropes and language known to appeal to a tiny minority of extremists who might contemplate violence. Trump has recently taken to proclaiming he is a “nationalist” and berated “globalists” — two designations that have innocent connotations in some contexts but are also recognized as code words by anti-Semites.”
  • “Recent years have seen a rise in anti-Semitic incidents across the country and the use of coded anti-Semitic imagery in material by right-wing politicians, including some prominent members of the Republican Party.”
  • “In 2016, a closing Trump campaign advertisement blasting a global establishment elite portrayed three people as villains alongside Hillary Clinton: billionaire liberal financier George Soros, former Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen and Lloyd Blankfein, the chairman of Goldman Sachs. All are Jewish.”
  • “Hints of anti-Semitism are also evident in some other GOP messaging.”
  • “Republican House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy this week deleted a tweet accusing Soros,former New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg, and Tom Steyer of trying to buy the midterm elections for Democrats, after a bomb was mailed by a Trump supporter to Soros. All three men are Jewish or of Jewish descent.”
  • “Iowa GOP Rep. Steve King recently endorsed Faith Goldy, a nationalist running for mayor in Toronto, who claims Canada is facing a “white genocide” and who has promoted anti-Jewish material.”

CNN posted an impressive list of Republicans giving space for antisemitism. While none of the people actually said anything about Jews or Judaism, CNN suggested that calling out people who were Jewish or activity which could be interpreted as Jewish, was giving space for antisemitism.

Picture alongside CNN’s article on anti-Semitic mass murder showing a smirking
President Trump with a caption “Related Article: How Trump’s nationalism
has already changed the world“
Not a single Democrat was included in CNN’s list.

If it cared to be balanced and actually address the issue of antisemitism in political discourse, CNN could have listed any of the following:

Democratic Antisemitism

  • D.C. Council member Trayon White Sr. (D-Ward 8) said that the Jews control the weather so they can get rich: “D.C. keep talking about, ‘We a resilient city.’ And that’s a model based off the Rothschilds controlling the climate to create natural disasters they can pay for to own the cities, man. Be careful.”
  • New York City Democrat Thomas Lopez Pierre went on a tirade against “Jewish landlords engaged in ethnic cleansing” in a promotional video.
  • There is a long list of Democratic members of Congress who have embraced notorious anti-Semite, Louis Farrakhan, including Keith Ellison (MN) and Maxine Waters (CA).

Democratic Anti-Zionism

Many current and recent Democratic officials and those Democrats running for office have platforms that are against or vilify the only Jewish country:

  • Democratic former Secretary of State John Kerry said that Israel risks becoming an “apartheid state” if it doesn’t get to a peace deal with Palestinian Arabs. He said nothing of the Palestinian Authority’s open demand of a country free of any Jews.
  • New York Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand praised anti-Zionist Linda Sarsour without qualification.
  • New York Democratic candidate Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez has said that Israel occupies Palestinian land, “massacres” Palestinian protesters, and is aligned with a movement that calls for boycotting Israel
  • Detroit candidate Rashida Tlaib is a proud supporter of the boycott, divestment and sanctions against Israel campaign.
  • Minnesota candidate Ilhan Omar has called Israel an “apartheid regime.“
  • In Virginia, Leslie Cockburn is running for Congress. She wrote a book that claims Israel controls America’s foreign policy – a particular strain of antisemitism that foments hatred in wide sections of America
  • In Pennsylvania, Democrat Scott Wallace’s charity gave $300,000 to pro-Israel boycott organizations
  • There were 58 members of Congress who walked out on Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s address to Congress in 2015. Every one was a Democrat.
  • Left wing group MoveOn.org and several Democratic members of Congress condemned President Trump recognition of the fact that Jerusalem is the capital of Israel, essentially calling it an act of war.
  • 2016 Democratic nominee for president and current Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders aligned himself with Cornel West, a loud critic of Israel
  • The Democratic party gutted its 2012 platform about Israel, getting rid of prior platform statements which: called Hamas a terrorist group; said that Palestinian refugees would be settled in Palestine, not Israel; specifically said that borders would NOT be on the 1967 lines; and that Jerusalem would remain the capital of Israel.

CNN opted to remain silent on every one of these Democrat’s comments.

CNN was clearly not looking to have a discussion about politicians fomenting antisemitism; it’s aim was to place the blame for antisemitism solely on the Republican party.

Perhaps CNN should look at itself, and its own reporters like Marc Lamont Hill, whom it describes as “one of the leading intellectual voices in the country.” Here is Hill’s video about his visit to Nazareth in Israel – not the West Bank or Gaza, but unquestionably Israel according to everyone except for rabid anti-Zionists. He refused to recognize the existence of Israel an called it “Palestine,” “a land stolen by greed and destroyed by hate… we stand by the people who courageously struggle and resist the occupation.”

CNN has become a mouthpiece for radical left-wing anti-Zionists, and it now lambasts Republicans as anti-Semites in a moment of Jewish grief. It is beyond pathetic. It is reprehensible.

Related First.One.Through articles:

What Kind of Hate Kills?

CNN Makes Clear the Attackers and Victims in Gaza-Israel Fight

CNN Will Not Report Islamic Terrorism

CNN’s Embrace of Hamas

Names and Narrative: CNN’s Temple Mount/ Al Aqsa Complex Inversion

Leading Gay Activists Hate Religious Children

This July 4, I am Leaving the Democratic Party that Left Me Long Ago

First.One.Through video:

CNN Calls out a Massacre in Jenin, even though it is Israelis who are killed (music by Gorecki) What is really proportionate?

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Western Jerusalem’s U.S. Consulate and Embassy

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The United States has had a consulate in the western part of Jerusalem for decades, despite the “controversial” and “disputed” nature of the city which had been planned as an independent “corpus separatum” together with Bethlehem in the United Nations Partition Plan of 1947. The U.S. Consulate did not provide any services to Israel, but existed just to provide services to Palestinian Arabs from the West Bank and Gaza, for items such as visas.

Israel never complained about the U.S. operations for Palestinians sitting squarely in Israel’s capital. For decades Israel remained silent at the insult.


U.S. Consulate in Jerusalem
(photo: First.One.Through)

But Israel would show its great appreciation to the the United States when President Donald Trump announced the intention of the U.S. to recognize the reality of Jerusalem serving as Israel’s capital, and plans to move the U.S. embassy to the city from Tel Aviv. The U.S. opened the embassy in May 2018, and just yesterday, announced plans to fold the services of the U.S. consulate into the new embassy building, and closing the current consulate location.

The Palestinians went crazy. As it did when the U.S. moved its embassy to Jerusalem, the Palestinian Authority objected to the closing of the U.S. Consulate office.

Their hypocrisy never dawned on them.

  • For decades the U.S. consulate sat in Jerusalem serving Palestinians, however, the Palestinians went berserk when the U.S. similarly moved its embassy for Israel to Jerusalem. Is a U.S. presence in Jerusalem only OK for the Palestinians?
  • The Palestinian Authority claims the eastern part of Jerusalem as its capital, but accepted the existence of the U.S. consulate for Palestinian Arabs in WESTERN Jerusalem. Is the Palestinian Authority laying claim to the western part of Jerusalem too?

For too long, the U.S. showed too much deference to the Palestinian Arabs’ sensitivities while it snubbed Israel, but as Israel was so reliant on the United States, Jerusalem suffered the indignities in silence. However, times have changed and Israel can now openly thank President Trump for treating the country with the respect of a sovereign nation, a thriving democracy and true American ally.

Related First.One.Through articles:

Corpus Separatum Ended Forever in 1995

Maybe Truman Should Not Have Recognized Israel

NY Times Cannot Even be Even-Handed When Describing “No Man’s Land”

Is Your Capital Central to Your Country?

Religious Countries Respond to Israel’s Jerusalem

Palestinians agree that Israel rules all of Jerusalem, but the World Treats the City as Divided

The Parameters of Palestinian Dignity

Ending Apartheid in Jerusalem

The Palestinian State I Oppose

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CNN Makes Clear the Attackers and Victims in Gaza-Israel Fight

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The Palestinians in Gaza launched a rocket directly at the Israeli heavily-populated city of Be’er Sheva. The rocket destroyed much of the home, but luckily the Jewish mother rushed her children into the basement saving all of their lives.


Destroyed second floor of home in Be’er Sheva, Israel
as shown in various media sites, NOT CNN

CNN had an interesting view of the story on October 17, 2018. It ran an article titled “Gaza rocket hits Israeli city, prompting Israeli air strikes in retaliation.” According to CNN, the rocket originated from a region, Gaza, but not at the hands of a people, the Palestinians. However, the retaliatory strike was from the government of Israel. For CNN, the story of the Palestinians in Gaza is one of peaceful protests and victimhood, not of terrorism.

Consider other recent headlines about the conflict from CNN:

In headline after headline, month after month, CNN only used the word “Palestinians” when it came to people being killed. The attacks that the Palestinians launched are referred to in the headlines as stemming from “Gaza” as it did in the October 17 headline, or to the ruling entity in Gaza, Hamas.

In the body of the articles themselves, CNN attributed the use of rockets to Hamas or other groups, but labeled the Palestinians themselves as simply “protesters” or “demonstrators.” The most these protesters could muster was the use of “weaponized kites.” Overall, the Palestinian people themselves were regarded as peaceful, being randomly and unfairly killed by Israel.

On the other side of the border in Israel itself, CNN minimized the attacks against Israeli civilians. The October 17 article stated

“Footage from Israel Channel 10 showed damage to the fence and yard of the home. No injuries were reported. A second rocket landed off the coast of central Israel, Israel Defense Forces (IDF) Lt. Col. Jonathan Conricus said.“

There was a lot of footage on all of the media sites – including the picture above – that showed the entire second floor of the home in Be’er Sheva being destroyed. But CNN opted to make it sound like no physical structures were damaged and no people were at risk. Just a “fence and yard.” The attack itself didn’t warrant a picture to lead the story.

However, the Israeli response to the attack was definitely worth showing.

GAZA CITY, GAZA – OCTOBER 17: A relative of Palestinian man, Naji al-Zaanin, 25, was killed in a fresh Israeli airstrike in the Gaza Strip, looks at her blood-stained hands as dead body of Zaanin is taken to the Indonesia Hospital’s morgue in Gaza City on October 17, 2018. In a statement, the ministry identified the victim as Naji al-Zaanin, 25, in the attack that targeted the northern city of Beit Lahia. (Photo by Mustafa Hassona/Anadolu Agency/Getty Images)

This was the image that CNN ran atop its news story of a missile attack on a major Israeli city.

Further down in the article, CNN did show a picture of some damage to the house (but hard to make out) even after the article clearly stated that the damage was only to “the fence and yard.”

An Israeli sapper checks a house after it was hit by a rocket fired from the Hamas-run Palestinian Gaza Strip, one of the first projectiles fired in recent weeks from Gaza, on the central Israeli city of Bersheva on October 17, 2018. – Israel launched raids against targets in the Gaza strip today in response to rocket fire from the Palestinian territory that caused damage in a southern city, the Israeli army said. (Photo by Jack GUEZ / AFP) (Photo credit should read JACK GUEZ/AFP/Getty Images)

CNN is educating the world about the attackers and victims in the Palestinian-Israeli conflict. Are you getting the message? Are you responding?

Related First.One.through articles:

CNN’s Embrace of Hamas

CNN Will Not Report Islamic Terrorism

Names and Narrative: CNN’s Temple Mount/ Al Aqsa Complex Inversion

Social Media’s “Fake News” and Mainstream Media’s Half-Truths

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Names and Narrative: It is Called ‘Area C’

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There was another terrible murder of innocent Israelis the other day. The slaying happened in the Barkan Industrial area, not far from Road 5 in Israel, about halfway between Rosh Haayin and Ariel.

The Barkan Industrial Zone is in ‘Area C’ as mapped out in the Oslo Accords, agreed to and signed by Israel and the Palestinian Authority. That agreement delineated three distinct zones east of the Green Line (EGL), commonly referred to as the “West Bank” or “Judea and Samaria.”

  • Area A: where the Palestinian Authority has administration and military control of the area;
  • Area B: where there is shared control with Israel; and
  • Area C: which is administered completely by Israel. The area is predominantly Jewish; only 7% of the West Bank Arabs live in Area C.

Israel created are a number of joint development projects in Area C, such as the Barkan Industrial area where several thousand Palestinian Arabs and Israeli Jews work together. The United States Ambassador to Israel David Friedman noted that Barkan “has been a model of Israeli-Palestinian coexistence since 1982, with thousands working and prospering together. Today a terrorist shattered that harmony by brutally murdering two Israelis at work.”

That model of coexistence was not just shattered by a murderer, but by some members of the media.

Consider first how some decided to describe Area C:


Wall Street Journal October 8, 2018 page A12

The descriptions above demonstrate the range of narratives.  The Jerusalem Post called the area by its long historic name of “Samaria,” which connects Jews to the region for thousands of years. Most of the Western media used the modern term for the region east of the Green Line that evolved in the 1950s to be the “West Bank,” as the world adopted an Arab point of view after Jordan illegally annexed the region in 1950. Al Jazeera was on the far extremist camp which took an Arab anti-Zionist viewpoint.

The media’s choice of name for the region equates to the narrative of the story and the overall bias of the publication. That much is clear in all of the various Names and Narratives articles in the First.One.Through series.
But the vileness of Al Jazeera was on full display, when it chose to go on a rant regarding the murder of innocent civilians in a work place designed to promote coexistence.
CBN News chose to not refer the overall area at all. It simply said that Barkan was near the city of Ariel. It noted that “For 35 years the industrial zone has been a model of co-existence between Israelis and Palestinians.” It spent time describing the woman and man who were brutally killed. That’s a bias towards humanity, the polar opposite of Al Jazeera.
Zionists and decent people everywhere should shun anything produced by Al Jazeera and its pop video site AJ+. The videos should be neither viewed nor shared.
Names and definitions matter. When a horrific murder of innocents gets nothing but vile hateful Arab propaganda instead of mourning the lives lost in a region of coexistence, it is way past time that people to not only boycott Al Jazeera, but begin efforts to shut it down.
It is no longer a matter of Israel or Arab narratives. It is a matter of human decency versus noxious evil.

Related First.One.Through articles:

A Sofer at the Kotel

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Jews around the world just finished reading the Torah, the Five Books of Moses, and promptly began to start the Bible again from the beginning. The time between finishing the public reading and recommencing the weekly recitation was only a few minutes. For Jews, the Bible is a living document that is always being read and learned. There is no “finishing” the Bible; just completing it and commencing again in rapid succession.

The holiday of completing the weekly Torah readings is called Simchat Torah, the Joy of the Bible. The Jewish religious denominations take different approaches to mark the holiday. Hasidic men may be seen dancing in circles with Torahs in the streets; many Reform Temples unfurl the entire Torah with men, women and children holding a section in a large circle. There is a common moment of celebration, but unique methods of celebrating.

With such thoughts about the recent holiday, it is time to advance a principle which is inscribed towards the end of the Pentateuch: to write a Torah.

Some biblical commentators believe that biblical commandment is only applicable to kings; others have said that the king need not actually write the Torah, but to own one. Still others have suggested that the commandment is for everyone to participate in the writing of the Torah, perhaps by paying a scribe, a sofer, to write one on their behalf.

This post is a proposal is to have a permanent sofer at the Western Wall, the Kotel, so everyone can participate in the mitzvah.

Background Issues

  1. Political. Discussions regarding Jerusalem, the Old City and the Kotel have been trapped in politics for many years. Who has or should have sovereignty and control is debated everywhere, with various advocates supporting Israel, the Palestinians, the Jordanian Waqf and the international community. Many leaders have sought to avoid the inherent religious nature of the location as they fear inflaming passions and violence among the three major monotheistic religions.
  2. Jewish Religious denominations. The Kotel plaza is currently caught in a fight within the various Jewish denominations. Recently, a dedicated space for non-Orthodox prayer has taken steps forwards-and-backwards, such as the expanded prayer area at Robinson’s Arch being approved and disapproved. The Jewish community outside of Israel (which is mostly non-Orthodox) has taken a sharply negative attitude towards Israel on this point, which is harmful on multiple levels to Israel and Jews worldwide.
  3. Education and performing a Mitzvah. Many people who come to the Kotel do not have a deep understanding of Judaism. They are foreigners who see an archaeological site caught in a political quagmire. Their visits often lack deeper religious engagement.
  4. Bridging the Israeli Ashkenazi and Sefaradi Communities. While the two communities often lead distinct lives, there is a chance for the two groups to create something together and forge a common bond, especially in Jerusalem.

The Opportunity

  1. Large Attendance. Jerusalem’s Old City – and the Kotel in particular – attracts millions of people a year. However, there has been no concerted attempt to actively engage the pilgrims and tourists in anything of religious or spiritual consequence. The plaza is simply an open space for pictures and pan-handlers.
  2. Spiritual Center. While the most sacred spot for Judaism is not the Kotel but the Temple Mount itself, it is the Kotel that has served as the religious symbol for Jews since the time of Suleiman I in the 1500s. While there is daily prayer at the Kotel, can there be more religious engagement?

Bar Mitzvah party entering the Old City of Jerusalem through Zion’s Gate
(photo: First.One.Through)

The Proposal

  1. Sofer at Kotel. The issues above can be addressed by adding a small building (about 47 feet wide) at the back of the Kotel plaza which would house a sofer who would write a Torah six days a week from 8:00am to 8:00pm. By giving a donation, visitors would be able to participate in the mitzvah of writing a Torah, as they observe the sofer write a word on their behalf.
  2. Ashkenazi and Sefardi approved. There would be both Ashekanzi and Sefardi sofers that would be approved by the chief rabbis of each group. The finished Torahs would alternate between being housed in an Ashkenazi and Sefaradi cases.
  3. One Sefer published each year. A Torah would be completed each year around Simchat Torah. The Kotel plaza would have a large celebration at the completion of the sefer.
  4. The World’s Gifts to Israel. The first two Torahs (first Sefaradi and second year Ashkenazi) would be housed at the Kotel itself. In future years, the Torahs would be sent around Israel to shuls, schools, hospitals and army bases.
  5. Everyone can participate. A woman from sherut leumi will welcome each participant in the entry room of the building, just outside of the sofer’s room. They will accept a donation of any sum from the visitor which will go towards the Kotel Torah effort. A pruta, or penny, will be enough to “purchase” a single letter in the Torah, and minimum donation levels for a word or a sentence. The participant will have the option of having a picture taken with the sofer, and having their name, city, and country be included among the thousands participating in the writing of the sefer Torah.
  6. The Sofer building. The building would not be very large. It would resemble an Ashkenazi Torah scroll viewed from above: narrow rectangular entry and exit room on either sides (each about 10’ by 16’) and a broader rectangle in the middle for the sofer which will have a large window providing natural light and for people to peer in. The roof with have a conical dome in the middle above the sofer’s room, to resemble a Sefardi Torah case when viewed from street level.
    1. The entry room will have materials for signing in, and a digital map showing where all of the participants for the current Torah have come from. Exhibits explaining how a Torah is written will be on the walls.
    2. The sofer’s room will have materials and the desk for the sofer, and room for a photographer to take pictures with the participants.
    3. The exit room will have materials related to restoring Torahs and digital tools like Sefaria and the Bar Ilan project.

Concern

Everything around the Kotel involves a global outcry. The United Nations has gone to such extreme and absurd levels that it has condemned Israel for mundane items like placing an umbrella in the Kotel Plaza. Placing a building at the back of the Plaza might generate similar protest, however, limiting its size may ameliorate some of the concerns, as well as not having any national flags atop the structure.

Conclusion

Bringing a sofer to the Kotel will hopefully allow all Jews to engage with the Judaism’s holiest space in a religious manner. Everyone would have a chance to perform the special mitzvah – even those with no knowledge of Hebrew and limited Jewish education. Participants will not only view the site from a physical and political basis, but also from a spiritual one.

For Israel, this can be a fence-mending opportunity. The global non-Orthodox community which feels disconnected from Israel and its Orthodox religious leaders will be able to stand in line and participate in writing the very same Torah as Orthodox Jews. This is a chance to open religion and the Kotel to everyone around the world.

There is a song that will be sung in a continuous loop at the building that houses the permanent sofer at the Kotel, words from the prophets Isaiah and Micha: “For the Torah shall come forth from Zion, and the words of God from Jerusalem.” Words that will hopefully bring unity to Jews around the world.

וְֽהָלְכ֞וּ גּוֹיִ֣ם רַבִּ֗ים וְאָֽמְרוּ֙ לְכ֣וּ ׀ וְנַעֲלֶ֣ה אֶל־הַר־יְהוָ֗ה וְאֶל־בֵּית֙ אֱלֹהֵ֣י יַעֲקֹ֔ב וְיוֹרֵ֙נוּ֙ מִדְּרָכָ֔יו וְנֵלְכָ֖ה בְּאֹֽרְחֹתָ֑יו כִּ֤י מִצִּיּוֹן֙ תֵּצֵ֣א תוֹרָ֔ה וּדְבַר־יְהוָ֖ה מִירוּשָׁלִָֽם׃

“And the many nations shall go and shall say: “Come, Let us go up to the Mount of the LORD, To the House of the God of Jacob; That He may instruct us in His ways, And that we may walk in His paths.” For instruction shall come forth from Zion, The word of the LORD from Jerusalem.” (Micha 4:2) (Isaiah 2:3)

Related First.One.Through articles:

Taking the Active Steps Towards Salvation

A Seder in Jerusalem with Liberal Friends

Here in United Jerusalem’s Jubilee Year

The Reform Movement’s Rick Jacobs Has no Understanding of Tolerance

The Jewish Holy Land

Today’s Inverted Chanukah: The Holiday of Rights in Jerusalem and Judea and Samaria

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Abbas’s Harmful East Jerusalem Fantasy

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The acting-President of the Palestinian Authority Mahmoud Abbas spoke to the United Nations General Assembly on September 27, 2018. The first words from his mouth were “Jerusalem is not for sale.” If only he understood the real truth in those words – Israel is not going to sell Jerusalem.

But, alas, Abbas thinks that the Palestinian Authority is the owner of Jerusalem, the PA controls it and will not compromise on its status.

Even more, Abbas ruled out any peace agreement without Jerusalem. At 18:04 of his speech, Abbas said “Peace in our region cannot be realized without an independent Palestinian state with East Jerusalem as its capital, with all its holy sites…. East Jerusalem, which has been occupied since 1967 is our capital. There is no peace otherwise.”

Abbas has long refused to acknowledge many truths. He imagines that Israel is a racist state which practices apartheid, even while it is the most open and liberal society for thousands of miles in any direction. Abbas pretends that he does not support terrorism, even while he sends terrorists’ families money and names schools and government properties after murderers.

Those lies lead Abbas to despise Israel and foment more violence and bloodshed. But, at least theoretically, he could advance peace and coexistence with such vile beliefs. However, his lies about Jerusalem are particularly harmful to the region, as he ties his fantasy to the ability to move forward to live in peace with Israel.

Jerusalem was never the capital of a Palestinian state nor intended to be a capital of an Arab state in any peace formulation. Ever.

When the United Nations voted on a partition plan for a Jewish State of Israel and Arab State of Palestine in 1947, it clearly marked a corpus separatum, a distinct international entity to hold Greater Bethlehem and Greater Jerusalem.

Annex B to resolution 181 (II) of the General Assembly,
dated 29 November 1947 for Greater Bethlehem and Greater Jerusalem

The Arab countries rejected the UN proposal and by May 1948 launched an attack on the new State of Israel. At war’s end, Jordan illegally seized control of three-quarters of the corpus separatum including all of Greater Bethlehem and the eastern half of Jerusalem, in a move that the world did not recognize. Israel took control of the western half of Greater Jerusalem and made it its capital. Jordan expelled all of the Jews from the area it seized and granted all non-Jews Jordanian citizenship in an outrageous antisemitic act in 1954.

The Jordanians gave Jordanian citizenship to the Palestinians in the newly named “West Bank” and “East Jerusalem.” They would make no attempt to give them independence or sovereignty throughout their period of illegal control until 1967.

In 1967, Jordan (and the Palestinians who had Jordanian citizenship) attacked Israel again and subsequently lost all of the “West Bank” and Greater Bethlehem and eastern Jerusalem. Israel took control of the area, and expanded the borders of Jerusalem in 1980, declaring “Jerusalem, complete and united, is the capital of Israel.”

As a sign of good faith during the Oslo Accords, Israel handed the Palestinian Authority a core part of corpus separatum, Bethlehem. With Israel, the PA and its peace sponsors all supporting the move, the concept of corpus separatum ended.

Abbas remains undeterred by facts. Before 1948 Jerusalem was to be an international city; from 1949 to 1967 the Jordanians controlled the city and made no efforts to give it to Palestinians; and from 1967 the entirety of the city has been the capital of Israel.

While Israel has permitted the Jordanian Waqf to have administrative responsibilities for Muslim holy sites in the Old City of Jerusalem (and no King Abdullah, Jordan has NO responsibility for Christian sites), the ownership, control and sovereignty of the city is Israel’s.

Jerusalem has never been a Palestinian capital, was never intended to be a Palestinian capital and is not a Palestinian city to even contemplate in a “sale.”

Related First.One.Through articles:

Ending Apartheid in Jerusalem

The Arguments over Jerusalem

750 Years of Continuous Jewish Jerusalem

Arabs in Jerusalem

I call BS: You Never Recognized Jerusalem as Israel’s Capital

Recognition of Acquiring Disputed Land in a Defensive War

Here in United Jerusalem’s Jubilee Year

The Invisible Flag in Judo and Jerusalem

The New York Times Inverts the History of Jerusalem

Today’s Inverted Chanukah: The Holiday of Rights in Jerusalem and Judea and Samaria

The Battle for Jerusalem

“East Jerusalem” – the 0.5% Molehill

Jerusalem, and a review of the sad state of divided capitals in the world

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May God Avenge His Blood

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There is an expression which is frequently used after the murder of innocent Jewish civilians: “Hamakom Yikom Damo,” or HYD for short. The rough translation is “May God Avenge His Blood.” People who skew to the right politically use the expression to express the desire for justice and revenge against the murderer. Those who tend towards the left may use the expression to convey the notion that justice is a matter for God to mete out, not for man.

The expression deserves further analysis, particularly as it relates to Ari Fuld, who was murdered by an Arab terrorist on September 16, 2018.

Bible Source for God’s Vengeance

The source for the HYD expression can be found in the Torah reading which was read last Saturday in synagogues around the world in Parashat Haazinu:

(הַרְנִ֤ינוּ גוֹיִם֙ עַמּ֔וֹ כִּ֥י דַם־עֲבָדָ֖יו יִקּ֑וֹם וְנָקָם֙ יָשִׁ֣יב לְצָרָ֔יו וְכִפֶּ֥ר אַדְמָת֖וֹ עַמּֽוֹ׃ (פ

“O nations, acclaim His people! For He’ll avenge the blood of His servants, Wreak vengeance on His foes, And cleanse the land of His people.” (Deuteronomy 32:43)

This line comes towards the end of one of only two poems that occur in the Bible. The sentence conveys that God will take vengeance on the enemies of the Jewish people. As translated here, this quote could be used to support the intentions of both liberals and conservatives.

However, the line must be read in the context of the entire poem, which gives important nuance to this expression of revenge.

The poem in chapter 32 begins with a description of God’s generosity towards the Children of Israel in giving them the holy land. However, it warns that the Jews will forget and forsake Him when they “grow fat” in the land. God will then punish the Jews for their sin, but He will ultimately relent – not because of the righteousness of the Jews – but because He doesn’t want the enemies of Israel to believe that they had vanquished God. He will bring His vengeance upon Israel’s enemies, because those foes had also rejected God and hurt His people.

Atonement for the Land-People

By the end of the poem when God’s vengeance is mentioned, the Jewish people will already have been pummeled. “God’s servants” will have already been devastated for rejecting His words, sacrificing to Him with “alien things” and worshiping strange Gods (32:16-18). The remaining sliver of His people will be saved and will serve as a testament to His word and promise.

With such backdrop, it is worth reviewing the final words of 32:43 which are translated above as “And cleanse the land of His people.” The Hebrew is more complicated and nuanced, and a more literal translation is “and His land His People will be atoned.”

“His land-people” is a very strange grammatical concoction, as there is no “and” connecting His land “and” His people. It can be best understood by looking at language used earlier in the poem (32:8-9):

בְּהַנְחֵ֤ל עֶלְיוֹן֙ גּוֹיִ֔ם בְּהַפְרִיד֖וֹ בְּנֵ֣י אָדָ֑ם יַצֵּב֙ גְּבֻלֹ֣ת עַמִּ֔ים לְמִסְפַּ֖ר בְּנֵ֥י יִשְׂרָאֵֽל׃

“When the Most High gave nations their homes And set the divisions of man, He fixed the boundaries of peoples In relation to Israel’s numbers.”

כִּ֛י חֵ֥לֶק יְהֹוָ֖ה עַמּ֑וֹ יַעֲקֹ֖ב חֶ֥בֶל נַחֲלָתֽוֹ׃

“For the LORD’s portion is His people, Jacob His own allotment.”

The text of 32:8-9 ties the notion of His nation (ammo in Hebrew) with the land of Israel itself. His nation, His people and His land are a single integrated entity. The “admato ammo” – “his land, his people” of 32:43 is that amalgam of the Jews living in their land of inheritance.

The verb preceding “admato ammo” is “v’kiper” which is similar to Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement. The complete clause means that God’s vengeance upon the enemies of the Jews will atone for past actions and cleanse the slate to rightly set His people in His land once more.

Neither the right- or left-leaning orientation of the expression “May God Avenge His Blood” captures the full essence of the quote which is meant to establish the enduring peace of Jews in Israel.

Ari Fuld

The Jewish people are now a fraction of their proper number, having been decimated in the Inquisition, pogroms, a Holocaust, wars and terrorism over the past thousand years. Their paltry headcount was scattered among dozens of countries around the world, only recently being gathered again into His land, the land of Israel. It was a mere ten years ago, in 2008, when the number of Jews in Israel surpassed all other countries for the first time in 1900 years. The “admato ammo,” God’s land-people are finally established again.

One of the Jews to return to the Jewish homeland was Ari Fuld, moving to Israel from the United States several decades ago. He not only fought in the Israel Defense Forces, he loudly and proudly defended and supported the IDF at every opportunity. He taught classes on Judaism in school and was a fierce religious Zionist. Ari was the essence of “admato ammo” – part-and-parcel of God’s land-people.

The expression “Hamakom Yikom Damo” for Ari Fuld is not a simple prayer for God to bring justice to Ari’s murderer, but a request that God fulfill Ari’s dream of an enduring peace for admato ammo, His land-people. The Children and Land of Israel.

Related First.One.Through articles:

Ari Fuld. Warrior for Peace

Denmark and Netherlands Support Ari Fuld’s Murder

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God is a Zionist (Joan Osborne)

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Subscribe YouTube channel: FirstOneThrough

 

Denmark and Netherlands Support Ari Fuld’s Murder

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Ari Fuld went shopping at his local mall on Sunday September 16, 2018, but never returned home. He was stabbed in the back and murdered by an Arab from a neighboring town.

The cold-blooded murder was barely covered in the liberal western press. However, it was covered by the Ma’an News Agency (MNA), which bills itself as an independent news agency for the West Bank and Gaza. The MNA had help in launching in 2005, as proudly stated on its website: “MNA was launched with generous funding from the Danish Representative Office to the Palestinian Authority (PA) and the Netherlands Representative Office to the PA, and Ma’an Network is deeply grateful to both offices for their support during MNA’s foundational period.”

How did the MNA report on the murder of this father of four? Read the article below (highlights added):

Israeli forces shoot, injure Palestinian after stabbing attack

“BETHLEHEM (Ma’an) — A Palestinian youth was shot and injured by Israeli forces on Sunday near the illegal Israel settlement of Gush Etzion, south of Bethlehem in the southern occupied West Bank, after the youth allegedly carried out a stabbing attack.

Hebrew-language news outlets reported that a Palestinian youth stabbed two Israeli settlers, near the illegal Israeli Gush Etzion settlement.
Sources confirmed that one of the Israeli settlers, Ari Fold, 40, a father of four children, died after the stabbing attack. Meanwhile, the other Israeli settler suffered serious injuries.
Sources also reported that Israeli forces immediately opened fire and shot the Palestinian youth.
The youth was reported to be in moderate condition.
According to local sources, the youth was identified as 16-year-old Khalil Yousef Ali Jabarin, a resident from the Yatta village in the southern West Bank district of Hebron.
Local sources confirmed that the youth was detained by Israeli forces and taken to an unknown location.
A number of Palestinians have been arrested, shot, or killed by Israeli forces for allegedly attempting to carry out attacks or being in possession of a knife at the Gush Etzion junction.
Though Israeli forces have claimed that Palestinians were allegedly attempting to carry out attacks in a majority of instances when Palestinians were killed, rights groups have disputed Israel’s version of events in a number of cases, and argued that many alleged attackers could have been subdued in a non-lethal manner.”
The message in the story is clear: Israeli forces often claim that there is an attempted attack when none exists, and use it as a premise to shoot Palestinians. In this case, a Palestinian youth was shot and taken to an unknown location by Israeli forces for allegedly being behind a stabbing attack.
There was a video of the stabbing made available widely after the murder. There is no question that Ari Fuld was minding his business when this “youth” attacked him completely unprovoked. The news sources also reported that the Palestinian “youth” was taken to an Israel hospital for treatment. This fact was obviously known to MNA, as they posted a picture of the attacker being taken by Israeli medical responders.
MNA portrayed a David-versus-Goliath narrative of “Israeli forces” acting “illegally” shooting “Palestinian youths.” However, there was no Israeli military involved in preventing a widespread stabbing attack that Sunday morning, but local people who were fortunately armed to stop the Arab “youth” from killing more people.
Instead of describing the cold-blooded murder of a Jewish father, Ma’an wrote an article meant to inflame the passions of Arabs and anti-Zionists that Israelis are out for blood and shooting youths for no reason.
And it did this with the support of European countries like Denmark and the Netherlands.

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Ari Fuld. Warrior for Peace

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On September 16, 2018, Ari Fuld was stabbed in the back outside of a shopping mall by an Arab terrorist. He died shortly thereafter.

Ari grew up in Queens, NY and went to school in Riverdale at SAR Academy where his father was the principal. Like his parents and brothers, he was an ardent Zionist and later moved to Israel. He would marry and have four children.

Ari devoted his time to helping soldiers in the Israeli Defense Forces. He would drive around the country delivering food, smiles and words of encouragement for the young men and women that were protecting the small nation. He would go on news programs defending the IDF, Israel’s policies designed to protect Israel, and speak out against countries and people that attacked the country politically.

It is unclear whether Ari was targeted for attack because of his zealous pro-Zionist views, or whether he was yet another Jew killed by an Arab for the simple reason that he was a Jew, no different than the Fogel family who were slaughtered in their sleep, Ezra Schwartz who was just delivering food to soldiers, or Leon Klinghoffer, who was pushed off a boat while on vacation.

What is not in question is the how fearless Ari was in taking his defense of Israel and the Jewish people everywhere he went.

While Ari lay dying, Jews around the world were reciting selichot, a selection of prayers which are said in the days before Yom Kippur. In the selection about Shalom, Peace, were statements about people like Ari, warriors for peace:

“Peace, grant in our land, and subdue peoples under us,
may the nations, instead of us, be broken twice over.
For Hashem punishes with fire,
and yet encourages his warriors
I will hear what the Almighty God Hashem, will say
for he speaks of peace.“

20180916_090749-2.jpg

“Peace without end upon the throne of the Judean lion cub,
as his light shines forever, without being extinguished.”

While Jews pray for God to fight their battles, it takes warriors for peace to serve as the agents to bring about such peace. God will bring about the success of the warriors, but without warriors, there can be no success.

Baruch Dayan Ha’emet. Our most sincere condolences to the entire Fuld family and the entire Jewish people.