Edward II of England expels Jews from England - for centuries.
France expels the Jews, long time citizens.
Spain and the Inquisition expel the Jews in 1492.
Portugal expels the Jews several years later.
Kishinev massacre, pogroms, Cossacks.
Pogroms in Poland.
Massacres in the Arab lands throughout history.
Caught between the killers and the sea, the Jews of the Iberian Peninsula had nowhere to go until the Netherlands said to come and the Sultan of Turkey sent ships to rescue them, telling all that these countries were losing wealth in the person of expelled Jews while he was gaining it.
It never stopped, even here in the USA. While not as bad, Leo Frank was lynched right here in the good old USA and Jews were banned from clubs, from hotels, from jobs, them and the dogs.
For thousands of years we dreamed of a country that belonged to us, that would welcome us, that would be a state of Jews once more with all welcome. Even in the horrors and deep and dark despair beyond all words of the Holocaust, there was hope. The prisoners in Terezin devised a hidden synagogue and on the wall was painted the Hebrew words that described how their eyes and hearts were attuned to the dreams of returning home, to Zion.
Herzl, appalled and discouraged by the Dreyfus Affair in France realized that unless we had a home of our own Jews would never be safe. Emile Zola wrote J'accuse and shamed the people of France but just see how much - if anything - has changed since then. And now the remaining Jews of Yemen, in the middle of a horrendous civil war, have been threatened, the few families who remain there - either they convert or else.
And today, in our homeland? Well, we now have an ugly eruption of hate and growing and showing ever more signs of being organized, a guiding hand. And the world? Silent again. Yet again. unless it is to mourn the fact that the terrorist who had just maimed, stabbed, shot, axed, rammed and run over innocents, was killed by Israeli police rescuing those in need.
Or, we have the "sage" advice of the State Department who gravely states that "Israelis should stay away from the knives of the Palestinians". Are they for real? Do they think that Israelis are taking the time from their day to go seek out Arabs who wish to stab and shoot and otherwise kill them? Good old State Department, as Arabist and anti Semitic as ever.
I wonder if they think that Koby Mandel and Yosef Ish-Ran sought out their enemies at the age of 13 and begged them to beat and kill them with stones, so much so that their faces could not be recognized by their mothers. Did the 13 year old boy riding his bike seek out the act of being stabbed so he can now fight for his life? Are we proportionate yet? Or should we maybe let more victims of terror die so that the newspapers of the world can now claim that there is proportionality?
"We bless every drop of blood spilled for Jerusalem, which is clean and pure blood, blood spilled for Allah.”
"Imagine if a white minister in, say, South Carolina preached this way about African-Americans, knife and all"
The hatred is the same so why does the world look away.
And make no mistake about it. This is not for a homeland that shares the land. No, this is a campaign to eliminate Israel and its population. They bus children to riots hoping they are killed so they can ask for the mercy of the world. They come seeking trouble, seeking murder. They shout, as they storm the border - "Death to the Yahud" - the Jew - not Israeli, JEW. They shout and chant "From the river to the sea, Palestine is ours." That means from the Jordan to the sea and there is no room for us anywhere.
There are dozens of Arab and Moslem nations, many of which proudly call themselves the Islamic State of ....., so why and wherefore can they not recognize one little place on earth that is a Jewish state? Why, because they hate, they kill and they are urged on by their leaders, by the leaders of countries that refuse to absorb them, by the UN, even as Israel is the first country to set up hospitals and aid for these countries when a disaster strikes - and even are healing and feeding wounded victims of the Syrian civil war and in the camps of Jordan where thousands reside. But the world says nothing.
Land for peace? Well, before there was the land there was no peace and when Israel unilaterally pulled out of Gaza, displacing thousands who had created life there, was there peace then? No, just wars and rockets and attacks - even today.
The millions of Jews who were the remnants of the slaughter in Europe, the Jews from Arab countries who had to flee for their lives, leaving all behind, the Jews of Europe who came as anti Semitism once again reared its ugly head in Poland, Rumania, Hungary, the Jews of Yemen who came on the biblical "wings of eagles", the Jews of Ethiopia, the Jews of the Soviet Union who came after years of persecution, including several relatives of mine. the Jews of the Ukraine caught in the fighting there and the Jews of France fearful of the hideous and murderous anti Semitism there - all have a place, a Jewish home, one that we yearned and prayed to return to during the almost three thousand years of exile and during all that time there was always a Jewish presence there, always the people going to the Holy land, our land, the home for Jews where they were welcome.
And today? The world stands silent again. Yet again. Will they open their gates to another remnant, G-d forbid, should the Arabs and Moslems go totally off the track? Will they? I doubt it.
Well, we will not let that happen again. We here in the relative safety of the USA, though a firebomb was thrown on Friday at two Jewish young men in NY and a woman and baby were stoned, will not allow this. No more Jude, Jood, Yahud, kike, Juif, stranger with an evil caricature. No more. We recall the Vision of Dry Bones from the prophet Ezekiel, wherein he was shown a valley of piles of bones and was promised that these bones would be joined together, united with sinews and muscles and flesh and life and will be brought once more to their land for this is what has been promised. One little land for a people that has done so much for the world - from the Bible to the cell phone, from literature to movies and tv, from newspapers to business.
Is this so much to ask. We raise our children to be role models, to become members of society and if we do not succeed 100% we try, but we do not raise our children to be killers, to blow up, stab, run over, torture and torment people. It is not natural for a parent to wish this for a child and yet what do the terrorists do? What do their parents do?
"From the depths we call to you, oh Lord. Hear us, answer us."
All that we pray for is peace. Read the prayer books and you will see that is true. Yet all we get is war and hatred. And the world stands still. And the world stands silent.
Is there something wrong here? Dear G-d, so much and so much anger and tears and fears and why? Only You can answer that. We are waiting.
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