Tuesday, October 21, 2014

The "New" Anti-Semitism

Someone sent me an article yesterday which is the inspiration for today's post. It purports to describe the new "anti-Semitism":
I put "anti-Semitism" in quotation marks because I believe it is a misnomer. The more accurate term is "anti-Jewism", which is the one I will use from this point forward. The article goes to great pains to explain this "new" phenomenon, and as I read it the question arose: What is new about it? For what I see, based upon my studies, is a repeat of the recurrent theme that has existed since (at least) the advent of Christianity.
When that religion emerged, with it came an attack on the Jews like no other. Christianity became the excuse for countless pogroms. In a moment, I will factor in the other influences that brought about the senseless slaughter of innumerable Jews, but first I will explain the religious foundation for the pervasive Jew-hatred of the past 2,000 years. The unavoidable indictment of the Jewish community, based upon Christian theology, is "The Jews killed the Messiah". Why Jews would kill the One for whom they await every year at Passover is beyond me, but the accusation is firmly entrenched in the mind of the Christian.
The psychology of anti-Jewism is as follows. The Jews flee from whatever entity has driven them from whatever home in which they resided at a given point in time. A new community allows them to settle in the new area, where they are tolerated by the current inhabitants. Tolerance is bigotry in disguise. Tolerance says, I m superior to you, but I will allow you to co-exist with me as long as you do not become a threat. That threat can take many forms, as history bears out, and underlying all of this is the knowledge that those evil Jews are Christ killers.
To their credit, Christians (especially in the early church) were overwhelmingly concerned with the souls of the Jews, and thus embarked on widespread campaigns to bring them to Jesus. Christians went the extra mile in doing so: First, they allowed Jews to live among them. Then, they allowed Jews to conduct whatever business they felt necessary. They even allowed Jews to have certain key, influential roles in society, such as tax-collecting and other services for whatever Royal happened to be ruling the territory at a given time. Such was the Christians' wholehearted commitment to the salvation of the Jews that at times they even went so far as to offer the Jews a tantalizing choice either to convert or be banished from their homes or, better yet, convert or be put to death. (Save your souls, and convert to Christianity, or die and lose your souls for all eternity. The logic of this philosophy escapes me.)
It was not only religious zeal that was the driving force behind such campaigns. As Jews rose to prominence within society, they were perceived as taking various high-ranking jobs not just for economic reasons but also to exert influence upon the leadership. Since Christians were well-aware of the Jews' propensity for evil machinations, this must have seemed to be a legitimate concern. In fact, such was the deceptiveness of the Jewish people that, even after their conversions to Christianity, suspicions arose that the Jews had done so disingenuously, and that in fact they were still practicing Judaism in secret.
Although it will undoubtedly be controversial, I must pause briefly and mention the Jews' own contribution to the environment. Not all Jews, to be certain, but some played into the widespread hysteria because of their own fears. While Christians were jealous and financially fearful of having Jews in certain key positions in their communities, some Jews developed their own suspicions and jealousies. There was also the inevitable resentment of some of the converts, with said converts being considered traitors to Judaism and thus to HaShem (God). Once again, fear is at the forefront because, as more and more Jews picked Christianity over exile and/or death, the real possibility that Judaism would become extinct horrified those Jews who held steadfastly to their faith.
Against this backdrop, it is not hard to see how one person, or at least a handful of persons, were easily able to light a solitary match and set off an inferno, one after the other, in city after city, for century after century. One hate-filled speech to the masses, giving voice to deep-seeded fears. One edict denouncing the various crimes Jews were alleged to have committed or were suspected of committing. In such an emotionally-charged environment incitement, under the guise of freedom of speech, has deadly consequences.
So, what has any of this to do with my study of the Islamic State? Everything. The setting is different, but the situation is the same. Certainly, at this time no one is forcing Jews to convert to Christianity nor to any other religious or political ideology under threat of death. That honor currently goes to Christians, Yazidis, and Kurds who are undergoing such torment, although the Jewish people are definitely on the future agenda. The Black Plague is gone, and no one is worried about Jews pretending to convert with the surreptitious goal of infiltrating a given church and destroying it from within. No, the allegations are indeed different. To be sure, to hear some tell the story Jews currently own the media and the banks, they run various governments (not this current American administration!), and that dreaded Zionist conspiracy looms largely on the horizon. Then of course there is Israel's genocidal behavior towards the "Palestinians", and their unquenchable drive to acquire all of the land in the Middle East. Thankfully, this generation of Jews is not very adept at such things; the "Palestinians" still exist, and in 66 years Israel has only succeeded in acquiring a land mass the size of New Jersey, but one never knows what such a diabolical group of people might accomplish if left unchecked. 
But, the accelerant I mentioned in a previous post still exists. Jews are still "Christ-killers", the theory of the matzos is still being propagated, and the various slanders of which Goebbels would be proud are still alive and well; i.e., Jews having infiltrated every conceivable position of power in the world with the ultimate goal of dominating the entire population of seven billion people. The anti-Jew environment is ripe for yet another attempt to wipe Israel off the map, and it is imperative that we all rise up against this very real threat before it is too late.
 

Monday, October 13, 2014

The Truth About Christianity

Christianity is a damnable lie, a contemptible lie, a lie that has been used as the excuse for the massacre of millions of Jews in the 2000 years since its inception. I say "excuse", because I will need to address the root causes in a future post, as it will be lengthy and will require much explanation. The roots of these slaughters are, in actuality, politics and economics, which parenthetically explains why the man I fondly refer to as my mentor, Prime Minister Netanyahu, majored in both. Filed away in the back of my mind all of these years has been the question of why he chose those two subjects in tandem, not that I expended any energy in an attempt to find the answer. However, I have now discovered the answer, and it makes perfect sense.
Nevertheless, Christianity has been the catalyst for the various pogroms, the Crusades, the Inquisition, and the Holocaust perpetrated against the true People of the Book all these many years. I will explain, but first let me say that I realize I will make many enemies with this post. I believe it was Sir Winston Churchill who said that if one has not made any enemies in this life, then one has not stood for anything. So, I accept my fate.
Oddly, two things led me to where I am at this point in my research, and at the outset I did not think one would lead to the other. The first, obviously, is my endeavor to learn the history behind what I am watching unfold in the Middle East today, the driving force behind everything I do every waking moment of every day. I am compelled to try and stop the horror I foresee coming, not that what is already happening is not horrifying. That search has led me to revisit things I studied many years ago, both to refresh my memory and to see if there were things I missed, which was inevitable. Any time one undertakes to study a given subject, the information that is absorbed is the result of whatever it is the student is attempting to glean at the time. I have been known to watch the same documentaries as many as twenty times, and each time I learn something I missed in earlier viewings. The second was my curiosity about my mentor's late father, Benzion Netanyahu, former professor emeritus at Cornell University. I checked out a copy of his book, "The Origins of the Inquisition", from the library and had only read the first four pages of the introduction when circumstances required that I put it away for the evening. The next morning was the beginning of the stunning revelations I am about to recount.
Before I continue, let me first promise this will not be a theological dissertation, although I must necessarily draw some basic evidence from religious text. But, I also think the reader should understand my motivation. I was raised by two uneducated racists. My mother was born and raised in Kentucky, having never gotten beyond the ninth grade; my father was born and raised in Missouri, and never went beyond the sixth grade, although he eventually acquired his GED in his 50's. So, I grew up hearing the usual stereotypes and racial epithets. Why did I not become indoctrinated? The answer is twofold. One, I grew up in the military. As a result, I was exposed to a wide variety of people from a wide variety of backgrounds, and thus I was able to contrast what I heard at home with the reality I was experiencing. The second influence, perhaps the stronger of the two, I did not learn until I was an adult.
One of my ancestors was William Phipps, the first governor of Massachusetts. His wife, Mary, was almost hung during the infamous Salem Witch Hunts; he used his influence as governor to save her. I believe there exists within me a genetic aversion to mindless bigotry that has been present since my birth, to which my endless conflicts with my parents seem to attest. One such confrontation occurred when I was a pre-teen. Like most children that age, I had my favorite music, and I would play the same songs over, and over, and over, and over, until I am surprised I did not drive my parents completely insane. For the most part, my parents left me alone because my father was an amateur musician who once formed a band on one of his ships, so they encouraged my love of music. However, one Saturday my father had quite enough of my group du jour, and came bursting into my room growling, "Turn off that God-damned nigger music!" I started laughing uncontrollably. I could not stop. I laughed until my stomach hurt and tears were streaming down my face. My father stood there (for probably the only time in his life) completely speechless. When I finally was able to compose myself enough to breathe he asked, "What's so God-damned funny?" (I get my lady-like language from him.) I gasped, "That's KC and the Sunshine Band", to which he said, "So?!" I replied, "SO, he's WHITE." (Score one for the Master Chief's kid.)
With that little anecdote, let me dive into my argument. In tandem with Professor Benzion Netanyahu's book, "Origins of the Inquisition", I was watching a video series on the same subject. I mentioned I had only gotten to page four of the introduction when I was interrupted. The next morning, I started watching the documentary, during which a question arose in my mind, so I broke away and searched for another video, which I found, comparing Judaism and Christianity:
When the rabbi began comparing the New Testament (the Christian Bible) to the Tanach (the Jewish Bible), I was aghast, because during the years I spent in the Christian religion I had been through the New Testament more times than I could count (with the exception of Revelations). I had read the Old Testament through a couple of times, and had read Psalms and Proverbs every month for years. The rabbi began pointing out some discrepancies, and I immediately started cross-referencing. The results were astonishing to me. Until this point, even after I decided to convert to Judaism, I always respected Christianity as being a valid, albeit erroneous, religion. This date, I discovered the basic logical fallacy within the Christian religion: When using the Old Testament to support the New Testament, the King James Version (or a newer translation) is used, all of which are based upon the Catholic/Protestant interpretations of the Bible (something a new friend of mine told me is called "eisegesis"). Unless one attends seminary, one never goes into the Hebrew translation. So, I pulled up an online Tanach, started looking for myself, and here is what I found. What the rabbi does not say in this lecture is that Christianity explains the Gospel of John is longer and more detailed because John was closest to Jesus. Therefore, in the Christian religion, it bears the most weight, with alleged discrepancies between the four gospels dismissed as being differences in points of view.
I decided to turn to the Gospel of John; I am not sure why. But, as I began reading, I ran across some verses where Jesus was quoting the Old Testament, so I went back to the Tanach and was stunned at what I discovered. Here are but three of the verses that stood out to me:
John 8:17-18 "It is also written in your law, that the testimony of two men is true. I am one that bear witness of myself, and the Father that sent me beareth witness of me."
John 10:34 "Jesus answered them, Is it not written in your law, I said, ye are gods?"
John 8:44 "Ye are of your father the devil,...."
First, one cannot be a witness for oneself, and John 8:17-18 takes its Old Testament reference completely out of context. Here is Deuteronomy 17:6, as translated from the Hebrew: "At the mouth of two witnesses, or three witnesses, shall he that is to die be put to death;...." Clearly, a defendant is not going to testify against himself that he is guilty of an offense worthy of death, so he would not qualify as one of the two or three witnesses referenced in this passage. How can Jesus bear witness to his own claim? He cannot. Further, since there is nothing in the New Testament indicating that HaShem appeared in order to verify Jesus' identity, there are zero witnesses to this claim.
Psalm 82:6 in the Hebrew says as follows: "I said: Ye are godlike beings, and all of you sons of the Most High." This contradicts both John 10:34 and John 8:44. HaShem does not say "ye are gods" but rather, "Ye are godlike beings", and how can the people Jesus confirms earlier in John 8 are "Abraham's seed"  (verse 37) be of their "father the devil" when HaShem said they are all "sons of the Most High"? Which is it?
In order to drive this point home, let me point out one final passage.
Numbers 23:19 "God is not a man, that He should lie; neither the son of man, that he should repent:...." How can Christianity possibly reconcile this one verse with the clear contradictions above? Never mind trying to explain how the New Testament, again according to Christianity, abrogates the Old? There is only one explanation if one is to believe Christianity: God changed His mind. Yet, He said He does not. So, which is true?
At this point, I remembered a video I had run across the day before and saved as I was working on something different at the time. I pulled it up and watched in astonishment as my worst fears were confirmed by a man who converted to Judaism having once been a Christian minister:
When the speech ended I was livid, not only because I had been duped, but because my memory began flashing back to all of the times I have seen pro-"Palestine" rallies containing signs saying, "Jews! Christ Killers!". I remembered the same propaganda from the Nazis. I remembered all of the arguments I have had on Twitter on this very issue, and the question arose: How many times has that lie has been used as an excuse to murder Jews? So, I went back to YouTube and pulled up the following series on anti-Semitism, which discusses the first pogrom in Alexandria, 38 C.E.:
Then I went on to cover the history of the Sephardic Jews:
By now I was exhausted, but filled with adrenaline, so I pulled out Professor Netanyahu's book and began reading where I left off at page four of the introduction. By the time I reached page 17 of Chapter One, "The Jewish Question", my worst fears had been confirmed. While the above does not explain the hatred of Jews preceding Christ, the issue of Jew hatred was clearly fueled by Christianity post-Christ, and the atrocities are incomprehensible. On page 16, he makes a vivid point: "For when the Jews of Colmar--men, women and children--were pushed into one cave to be burned there together, or when the Jews of Strasbourg, two thousand strong, were all driven into a lighted pyre, there was ostensibly a justifiable reason for these outrages: The Jews were charged with having caused the Black Death." As we heard in the above series on anti-Semitism, such excuses have run rampant throughout the past 2,000 years: killing the Messiah; the Black Death; slaughtering Christians to use their blood to make matzvot; sacrifices in the temple where the flesh was eaten; "posing" as Christians while engaging in various plots; and the list goes on. Underlying all of these genocidal rages has been the teachings of Christianity. As I have said before, it is far more complicated; I will need to cover the complexities in a future post, but for now I will say this: In order to create a fire, one needs three things. Fuel (such as wood), an accelerant (such as oxygen), and a spark. In the past two millennia, the accelerant has been Christianity, and as a result millions, millions of Jews have been mercilessly discriminated against, driven from their homes, tortured, and slaughtered in ways unimaginable to the uninitiated. Millions.
In closing, let me tell the reader what led me to Judaism. Over the years, I had a handful of encounters with Jews, mostly superficially, but a couple of times I had some fairly in-depth discussions. I was intrigued by what they had to say, but not enough that I pursued it. After all, I thought I was on the right path with Christianity. One day, I was walking through a library when I passed a book whose title will give the reader a laugh. "Judaism for Dummies." The "Dummies" series is not as shallow as the titles make it sound. I began reading, and the first thing that struck me was when the rabbi who authored the book made the statement that one is prohibited from reciting a prayer in Hebrew unless he/she understands the meaning. I was hooked. I was hooked because up until that time I believed religion was a matter of faith. Faith was always my stumbling block in Christianity. Any time I had a question to which the answer was not readily apparent, I was told to have "faith". "Faith as a grain of mustard seed." I never liked "faith". I wanted to know. I wanted the assurance that I was correct. Judaism affords me that. Questions are encouraged; in fact, they are demanded. One is expected to know Torah, to know its precepts, to understand the traditions, to understand the teachings, and to understand the principles behind those things. Judaism is an extremely intellectual religion, and it has fed me like no other.
One last think I would like to point out. The reason I began to like Maimonides was because of something I read in another book, "The Book of Jewish Values", which is the Jewish equivalent of the Christian "Our Daily Bread". One day's lesson quoted Maimonides as saying, "B'tzedek tishpot amitekha". Judge one another favorably. That message hit home, not because it was new to me but because it was a precept to which I had adhered my entire adult life without realizing its root. In fact, I gave a little mini-lecture on Twitter during the last Gaza war because some of my Israeli followers were lambasting Prime Minister Netanyahu over his handling of the situation, and throwing in my face his decision to release prisoners (terrorists) during the so-called "peace talks". I leapt to his defense, and I was called any number of names, to which I responded by quoting Maimonides. I am on record as having disagreed with the Prime Minister's decision to go along with those releases, but as I have said repeatedly, I have studied my mentor for well over three decades, ever since he first hit the public eye, and while I have never had the honor of meeting him I believe I know him pretty well. I watched the Cabinet meeting the morning that vote was taken. I saw the horrified looks on the faces of some of the Cabinet members, but what haunted me was the look in the Prime Minister's eyes. He was in tears, and could not even hold his gaze into the camera. I have never seen him like that, and it disturbed me so much that I literally did not sleep for seven days, other than a couple of times when I passed out for two hours at a time from sheer exhaustion. I struggled to understand why he was doing something that I knew he did not want to do, that seemed to be so out of character for this man. At the end of that week, I still did not have the answer to that question, but I did understand this: Prime Minister Netanyahu is a man of character and honor. He always does what he believes to be right. He has the courage of his convictions. That is not to say he is always right; no one is. But, he strives to make the right decisions based upon his moral code. Knowing that, I made my peace with what he had done. B'tzedek tishpot amitekha.
I finish this post with an affirmation of my driving force, from Isaiah 62:1, quoted by Prime Minister Netanyahu at the close of his speech before the United Nations General Assembly this past September: "L'ma'an Tziyon lo eHeshe, u'l'ma'an Yerushalaim lo eshkot, 'ath-yeitzei chanogah tzidkah, vish'atkah k'lapith yivar." "For the sake of Zion, I will not be silent. For the sake of Jerusalem, I will not be still. Until her light shines bright, And her salvation glows like a flaming torch." 

Knowledge is a Curse

If no one has coined that phrase before, I wish for it to be attributed to me. I notice that Solomon, when asked by HaShem what he wanted, more than anything he sought wisdom, for which he was rewarded with much, much more. But, why wisdom? Because without wisdom, knowledge is worthless. Without the ability to decide what to do with knowledge, there is no point to having it. Conversely, one can possess wisdom without great knowledge, because wisdom is the ability to discern how best to handle a given situation.
I am cursed. I have been a life-long student of many things. My knowledge base is quite eclectic because I am, by nature, curious. I ask questions constantly, and I am driven to continue asking those questions until I find answers that quench that curiosity. What is frustrating beyond words is the fact that I am now realizing that, with as much knowledge as I have obtained in my 53 years of life, I know nothing.
I thought I had learned that lesson many years ago. People have often asked me where I acquired my research skills, and I have related the following story in response. I grew up as an only child, born of two parents who married late in life. They were extremely protective of me, to the point that once, when I was five minutes late getting home from school, my father (who was in the Navy but was on shore duty at the time) had already called the police to look for me. I was forbidden to give our phone number out to anyone, including my schools, and one time when I did I was punished severely for it. Extracurricular activities were out of the question. Of course, while I was growing up I had no reason to question the way in which I was being raised, but as time passed and I began reaching the age where one begins comparing notes with others, I started to realize all children were not growing up in the same way I was.
I remember pleading with my parents, over and over again, to have other children. I could not understand why they refused. I was incredibly lonely because not only did I not have siblings but I was isolated from socializing with others by parental edict. Of course, people adapt, and I became quite skilled at entertaining myself. I even learned how to play four-handed poker by myself, and could forget each hand as soon as I picked up the next so that I could play "fairly". Since my father was constantly being transferred, and the Navy was terrible at having housing available upon arrival, I never saw a school year through from beginning to end. As a result, I was always playing catch-up. I eventually learned how to study on my own because in addition to travelling, I was also constantly sick, so between the two I missed almost as much school as I attended and had I not learned how to educate myself I would still be in first grade.
Against that backdrop, I turned 21 and shortly thereafter went to visit my grandmother whom I had not seen in several years. I loved her more than life itself, as anyone in my family will attest. When she pulled out the inevitable family photo albums I indulged her despite my impatience with such things. My extended family was quite large, and I could barely keep my five great-aunts straight, never mind all of their children and their children's children. But, I observed politely as she went through page after page, until she finally reached a certain photograph. She covered the top half of it, and asked me if I could identify the person from just the hands that were crossed on his lap. I said no, and she uncovered the man's face. I asked, "Who is that?", to which she became slightly exasperated and replied, "Well, that's Mark, of course!" I said, "Mark, who?" and she turned white as a sheet. The photo album was put away, and she attempted to drop the subject.
My curious nature was having no part of it. I demanded to know who Mark was. She stammered and said my father would kill her if she told me, and I said, "No, he won't, because I am going to kill him first!" You see, my radar was finely honed, my young brain was spinning with the possible answers to my question, and I was not liking where this was going. So, I asked her again, and she confessed. Mark was my brother (half-brother), and as I extracted further information she told me what little she knew, which was that both of my parents had been married previously and that I in fact had six half-brothers and sisters between the two of them.
I hit the ceiling. I will not bore the reader with what all I did in response to that bombshell, but those who are familiar with me can imagine. After I finally came to terms with the fact that the first twenty-one years of my life had been a lie, I began an investigation into my parents' lives that brought even more information to light, culminating many years later in the discovery of my older, full-blood brother who had been given up for adoption five years before my birth. It is a very long story, and for the purposes of this blog it is not relevant. I relate the story, however, to give the reader a sense of why I despise betrayal.
I have been betrayed again. I am not alone. What I thought I knew about Christianity, the religion to which my grandmother devoted her entire life, and in which I spent many years before ultimately finding Judaism, has been a lie. An atrocious lie. A lie that has led to the deaths of countless of the very people I love with my very heart and soul: The Jews. I am beside myself with hurt and anger.
I have much more study to do in the coming days, but my next blog will address some of what I have uncovered. It is mind-shattering. As I continue this quest for knowledge, I must beg of HaShem all of the wisdom He sees fit to bestow upon me so that I can discern how best to use what I am learning. I am ever mindful of the ultimate goal of my research, which is to do whatever I can to help stop the disaster I see in the making on the world stage. In order to do so, I must be on firm foundation, and that is what I am seeking at this time.

Sunday, October 12, 2014

Venting

I will never, ever understand. I have tried, for 36 years, and I will never be able to wrap my mind around it.
While I am soaking up as much information as possible in hopes of finding some way of contributing to the end of the current danger we face, I have been hop-scotching through history, piecing together how various genocides against the Jews have occurred. Of course, Jews are not the current target, at least not yet. It is the Kurds, but in my research I found there are many similarities in their histories, which likely explains their alliance with one another.
Tonight I am reviewing the movie, "Nuremberg", because the immediate priority I have in my studies is to understand the mentality of the Islamic State, and in so doing I must, as much as is humanly possible, put myself inside al-Baghdadi's head. So, I have been reviewing the Caliphates, etc., and that study has taken me to the Farhud, the Inquisition, and the Crusades, to name a few.
My journey with Israel began when I learned of the Holocaust. At first, I just shook my head. I could not understand any of it. Believe it or not, it was not the horror of the Nazis that astonished me, although as I delved more deeply into their sicknesses my revulsion was immeasurable. No, the thing that struck me first was how the Jews could so resignedly go to their deaths. They just accepted their fate. Aside from the Warsaw Ghetto uprising, I found no evidence that these individuals wanted to live. I find myself in that same place tonight, as I am listening to the letter written to the Nuremberg court regarding the genocide of thousands of Jews in Ukraine. Men, women, and children, standing silently, waiting for their instructions, following those instructions, lying down calmly in the pit on top of the thousand or so who were already dead or dying, and waiting to be shot.
Waiting to be shot.
WHY?
Perhaps it is my military upbringing. Perhaps it is my own time in the military. Perhaps it is the life that I have lived. All I know is I do not understand how anyone, knowing he or she is about to die, simply stands there and waits for it. These many decades later, I find myself every bit as frustrated as the first day I ever heard of the Holocaust.
This post may ramble, and for that I apologize, which is why I entitled it Venting. I was raised with the philosophy that, if I am about to die, and there is no other way out, to at least take someone with me. (My father was a Master Chief. Enough said.) I have watched scores of videos from the Holocaust. I have watched hundreds of Jews lined up alongside ditches, obediently awaiting their machine gun bullets. I have read, because the Nazis recorded everything with great pride, about how the Jews, while in the "showers", were singing. Singing. Singing about their Messiah, saying, "...though He be delayed, I still believe". My God. What led such a great people to such passivity?
Jews, from the beginning of history, have been blamed for everything from bad crop seasons, to "killing" Jesus, to the Black Plague, to the "genocide" of the "Palestinians"; I am surprised that they have not yet been blamed for "global warming", although that is probably next. Where is the resentment? Where is the anger? Where is the outrage? Where is the fight to survive?
Yes, I am gratified to see modern day Israel. It gives me great comfort. In fact, it was my study of Israel that ultimately led me to Judaism. But, I can never hear of the countless atrocities perpetrated against the Jews without the same rage rising up within me. When Israel feels called by HaShem to fight, she is glorious. Jonathan wiped out the Philistines at Michmach in a grand fashion that was repeated in World War I after a British officer read the account in his Bible and decided to replicate it. In fact, America's special forces train with Israel's elite. We all recognize the incredible talent Israel has. So, why is it that so many times they have been overcome with resignation. Depression? Some misplaced sense that this is HaShem's Will? That if they pray hard enough HaShem will rescue them in due time? Where are the descendants of David?
I do not understand.
I find myself wanting to scream at the screen, GET UP AND FIGHT, DAMN IT!
None of this is to be misconstrued. I do not blame the Jews for the insane hatred to which they are subjected. I am learning about politics through the course of this. I have always loathed politics, so I never really took the time to study it, but I am learning that politics has been integral in every single atrocity ever committed in the history of mankind. So, I know that, when a given people are deemed to be a threat to the powers that be, genocide is the result, although Jews are the brunt of such evil more so than any other group in recorded history.
Anyway, perhaps at the end of this journey I will be able to make peace with history. I do not know. For now, I am confounded. My love for Israel has never been stronger, and it grows with every day. Alongside my frustration and rage, I feel a deeply-rooted need to defend her and to fight for her. I am gratified to see she is fighting as well. Live on, Zion. 
Am Yisrael Chai.

The Only True Way to End Racism