Rabbi Meir Kahane: My Rebbe (That I Never Met)

Contemporary "pop popularity" aside, despite the presence of "Kahane Tzadak" slogans and stickers plastered on walls throughout the country, the vast majority of respectable "right-wing" Jews opposed Rabbi Kahane during his lifetime. Many condemned him. Very few synagogues gave him a pulpit to speak, even rarer were those individuals with influence who courageously supported him. During his lifetime, mainstream Jews viewed him as a pariah. This is my portrait of a genuine Jewish hero, first published in "The Jewish Press" in 2014:  http://www.jewishpress.com/indepth/columns/fuchs-focus/rabbi-meir-kahane-my-rebbe-that-i-never-met/2014/11/10/

The Coexistence Cult

Now Featured in The Jewish Press: The Coexistence Cult

“And he shall be a wild ass of a man: his hand shall be against every man, and every man's hand against him; and he shall dwell in the face of all his brethren.”-Genesis 16:12 (JPS Tanach)

Ari Fuld’s (may G-d avenge his blood) recent murder in Gush Etzion at the hands of a 17-year-old Arab monster, shocked the entire nation; in a country where murder of Jews is commonplace. Ari’s killer couldn’t even grow a beard, but his immersion in a cultural/religious climate of psychopathic evil, compelled him to study vital targets on the human body to kill Jews with a kitchen knife. This is the kind of human disease we are dealing with in Israel. Living things who breath and stand upright and look like men, but who lack the morality of desert jinn or vipers.

As a prominent activist whose videos were featured on Facebook, Ari left an indelible imprint on an audience accustomed to seeing him online. The void was felt by many who never met him but often “saw” him on video. The horror is magnified when you consider the sobering fact that he leaves behind a wife and four children. The myriads of testimonials illustrate that Ari truly loved Eretz Yisroel and the Jewish people. And with his last breath and sacrifice he epitomized this love in the most literal sense.

Like so many acts of Arab savagery against Jews, it was all captured on videotape. The sneak attack on Ari and his brutal stabbing. And his moment of superhuman heroism. The soul screams to the Heavens to watch the grainy footage of an Amalekite lethally stabbing Ari, and then seeing him defy his imminent death by overcoming physical obstacles while stumbling and crashing into walls. Yet he unholstered his gun, took a practiced stance and fired, trying to kill one who exchanged his humanity for the blood Moloch of jihad. Had Ari done nothing he would have died a kadosh by sanctifying Hashem’s as a murdered Jew. But to die while trying to save other Jews he died a Jewish gibor.

As horrifying as it is to watch a Jew being killed, I believe it is important (with the obvious exceptions of children and certain temperaments) to watch the video at least once for several reasons:

1) To honor Ari’s last moments of sacrifice and heroism. I agree with the theory that his heroism might have led to his own death, since given the severity of his wounds, he needed to sit still and try to stop the bleeding until EMT arrived. His attempt to terminate his murderer as he bled to death displayed extraordinary heroism. He was more concerned with saving other Jews, and it may have cost him his life.

 2)To inculcate hatred towards those who wear the Yoke of Amalek. To see the actions of genuine evil. Jews need to understand the concept of evil, which explains the total war we wage against our enemies according to Torah law.

3)To feel, bleed, and cry over a murdered Jew. At the end of the day, Ari is one of so many people who were murdered in Israel for being a Jew. Murdered by Arabs who wouldn’t understand coexistence if it smacked them in the head.

Ari’s murder is an all too common tragedy in our tiny country, where governments shirk their sacred duty of protecting Jewish lives. Benjamin Netanyahu and Likud act no different than the left on issues of security. Consider the southern border of our country and convince me otherwise. Months of devastating arson and terror balloons and insane destruction, with the same pattycake response, from a supposed “right-wing” government. Shameful. When Netanyahu finally loses power, it will be because the Left will have convinced enough people that the supposed party of security failed to protect the country. It matters little that they will continue with the same impotent response to Arab violence.

The Cry of False Peace Prophets

And in the aftermath of this monstrous tragedy, we hear the same perverted voices speaking of coexistence with Arabs. We heard about the site of the murder, Rami Levi, being a haven of “coexistence” for Jews and Arabs. Many of these peace warriors are also naïve “indigenous rights activists”, a good many who believe that Jews AND Arabs are both indigenous, and that we can remain in the land together if we embrace our shared “Semitism”. We hear how Arabs and Jews meet and greet and drink coffee. As I’ve noted before, the Jews of Hebron in 1929 also would have sworn that they had coexistence. Some of them also shared Turkish coffee with their Arab neighbors. And yet, their neighbors butchered them in 1929. The ghosts of Hebron (so close to Gush Etzion) scream out to us that Amalek does indeed reside in our land. That voracious “Am Lak” that lap up blood as a dying man laps up water. It is time to eschew pacifism and gird ourselves in the righteous garb of halachic warfare. Coexistence be damned.

“The Arabs are a cancer in our midst. And you don't coexist with a cancer. A cancer you either cut out, and throw out, or you die.”- (Rabbi Meir Kahane, on 60 Minutes)

I have written about some of these new peaceniks before in my articles  The New Peace Movements Exposed, and The New Indigenous Right: Hardline Or Soft-Boiled? One personality I have not addressed previously is Inon Dan Kehati who heads The Home (Habayit). On September 23, Inon posted the following:

“One week after the murder of Efrat resident, Ari Fuld HYD, we have returned to one of the only islands of sanity and normality in the Judean hills, where Jews and Palestinians shop, work and having coffee together.

The vicious act of the Palestinian terrorist, who took the life of a father of 4, will not deceive us into believing that all Palestinians are terrorists, and will not hold us back working in the most inclusive way, with people from both Jewish and Palestinian communities in the area of Bethlehem and Gush Etzion.

We will continue to expand the inter-communal connections between Palestinians and Jews in Judea and Samaria, and work towards a joint future, based on loyalty to the homeland of the forefathers and foremothers, with the people who live on it, with faith.

The Home is sending our deepest condolences and grief to the Fuld family.”

To be fair, Inon seems sincerer in his deadly naivete than other faces on the new peace circuit, which makes his beliefs much more dangerous. Unlike many of the other “new peace” activists who opine on indigeneity while presumably fressing on majul dates, he and his cadre of believers frequently go out and pick up trash rather than merely opine on their silly fantasy of “understanding narratives” from the confines of contrived orchestrated “meetings”. But dangerous ideas (despite the general belief of their well-intentioned practitioners) remain dangerous regardless of the sincerity of suicidal actions. Such ventures render Jews vulnerable to those who are nursed on the kind of Jew-hatred that would impress Goebbels. Furthermore, more than a few mainstream religious activists have met with Inon and others at these “New Peace” meetings. Meeting with “good Arabs” are akin to the notion of German Jews meeting with token “good German’s” during the Holocaust. Obscene and inappropriate. The only difference is that the Arabs don’t have the power to throw us into the ovens today. They have the desire but lack the means. And history has shown how quickly Arab friends turn sour in the frenzy of massacre.

Beware the foolish new “peace gurus”. Their ideology is no less toxic than the classical peace-fools. The only difference is that they can appeal to a demographic of “religious/traditionalists who would never consider entertaining such notions. They have the added fantasy of thinking they can keep everything (land) with those who overwhelmingly deny our right to anything, including our lives. Shared narratives and the nonsense of a shared indigenous “Semitic” identity is lunacy. Most Arabs would never truly except such idiocy. And at the end of the day, if you watch video footage of some of the more publicized meetings, it becomes evident as Rabbi Meir Kahane stated, that we are dealing with a conflict he deemed “immutable”. Even the decent Arabs in attendance have expectations that could never be met without endangering every Jew in Israel. And to say otherwise is to be disingenuous and patronizing.

To cultivate a hatred of evil, one must understand evil, and the forces of political correctness which render it impossible to examine Islam. As I noted in my article Islam: A reflection on the dominant hatred of our region: Islam's War against the Jews and the Torah:

“Islam is as much a scourge upon the earth as the strain of Naziism. Yet unlike the war against Naziism, there is no international force fighting Islam on the battlefield in a way that represents a definitive war against Islam. Squirmishes here and there. But never against Islam. No current mainstream politician will ever openly declare a war against Islam. The most right-wing politicians still use the term “extremist Islam” or “militant Islam”. And that is the problem.

Too many Jews want to find a common denominator with Islam, a supposed kinship based upon monotheism. From a Torah religious standpoint, the Muslims may indeed be monotheists. (Generally, this is the established position of prominent Torah scholars past and present, but this is hardly monolithic. The more ambitious reader can research the position of the Tzitz Eliezer.) Nevertheless, their monotheism is irrelevant, since they are an ideology of murder. Their ravenous blood deity is not Hashem, Heaven forbid. Allah is a drinker of innocent blood.”

The Torah’s solution hasn’t changed: Parshat Masai. “Vehorashtem”- “You shall drive out all the land’s inhabitants before you, and you shall destroy all their prostration stones, all their molten images you shall destroy, and all of their high places you shall demolish.” (Numbers 33: 52-53) It continues: “If you do not dispossess the inhabitants of the land, those whom you allow to remain shall be barbs in your eyes and thorns in your sides, and they shall harass you in the land in which you live. Then, I will do to you what I had planned to do them.” (Numbers 33:55-56)

Many years ago, Rabbi Meir Kahane insisted that transferring the Arabs out of Eretz Yisroel was the only solution. So many years later, the unspoken and politically taboo concept of Arab transfer remains the only honest response to an enemy who cannot live with those who share his own nationality/religion, let alone those they see as accursed dhimmis. The ticking time bomb of “Israeli-Arabs” represents a fifth column. They don’t need to be a majority. They are powerful enough when they align with the left to affect our national policy. We saw that with the Oslo Accords. No amount of Turkish coffee will ever rehabilitate a culture and ethos of jihad and “martyrdom”. It will only ensure that more Jews are gutted with knives in the parking lots of supposed safe havens.

One final note: While perusing Ari’s writings to get insight into his life, I discovered that he had a consistent position regarding Arab terrorists: No terrorist should be allowed to survive his act of terror. Ari did his utmost to destroy his killer. Perhaps now, those self-righteous moralists (not a few from the religious camps) who attacked Elor Azaria for killing a terrorist after he was restrained, will shut their mouths.  Elor is a living hero. I could care less with the argument that Elor was afraid that the Arab terrorist had an explosive on his person. My Torah based morality requires no such explanation or excuse. If it could be proven otherwise, his actions would remain noble. By killing the terrorist, Elor assured that the barbarian would never be released from prison to kill another Jew, something which Heaven forbid could very well happen to Ari’s killer. We’ve seen it time and again when governments release Arabs with Jewish blood on their hands. Likud governments do it as well as their Labor counterparts. Elor guaranteed that no future orphans and widows would grieve from those hands. Yet if a recent report is correct, he can’t even obtain a gun today to protect himself.

Ari Fuld was stolen from this world, because Jewish blood is treated cheaply by the Israeli government. With a culture of havlaga corroding every fiber of government, any Arab with a knife can casually enter a local area where Jews buy groceries with the deluded self-perception of safety. The Left cultivates this disease with their appeasement and indoctrination via media, culture, academia, education, and their surrogates in government. The new “rightist” peaceniks are as insane as the craven Likud and the classical left. Because despite their pretense to not being leftist (by insisting that they oppose territorial compromise) their darling ideologies of “indigenous rights” and “peace” are beloved leftist ideals that every sane person should reject regardless of its peculiar new face.  

The new peace movements speak of building relationships, while Arabs ensure that our cemeteries grow larger. Until the Arabs understand Jewish might, they will continue to bleed us. Our blood is more precious than buildings or trees, neither of which impresses them. Those who congregate at the site of Ari’s murder with non-representative samplings of token Arabs, will have blood on their hands when the next Jew is gutted. And it will happen. The ingredients are simple, and they are everywhere. An Arab with the requisite “oh-so common” Jew-hatred, the will and intent to kill, and a simple kitchen knife.

Our lesson to Ari’s spilled blood should not be one of love and coexistence. Only the mad would see in such horror the need to march in “the mercy of fools’” parade of self-righteous peace shamans. The lesson should be one of Jewish barzel (iron) and unrelenting cruelty to modern-day Nazis, and a commitment to the kind of government sponsored military action to make Arabs wish they were back in Arabia. And we in Israel should of course accommodate them by throwing them the hell out of Israel. They can go to Jordan or Egypt, or perhaps Germany, France, and England, which seem equally viable options. Europe deserves them. Transfer may seem extreme in today’s morally neutered age. Yet transfer is just. It is after all, the halachic requirement.

The Dangers of Contemporary Hasbara

"Those who cannot debate, defame."- Rabbi Meir Kahane (May G-d avenge his blood)

A Critique of Pure Hasbara

My colleagues and I are often libeled and slandered by social media "hasbara" activists (bloggers and such), for our criticism of their positions and beliefs as it relates to Israel and the Jewish people. Rather than engage in dialogue and respond with reasoned discourse, they invariably resort to defamation and lies. So what are some of my critiques of contemporary hasbara? Find out more in the following article, originally featured in The Jewish Press: A Critique of Pure Hasbara

Snakes: A Counter-Response

Adam Eliyahu Berkowitz of "Breaking Israel News" recently responded to my article “Snakes in The Vineyard” with an article of his own. While I appreciate his ability to address these contentious issues without resorting to defamation, Adam is wrong on this issue. Hayovel is indeed a missionary organization. My response is featured in The Jewish Press: Snakes: A Counter-Response

• The original article:Snakes In The Vineyard

Snakes In The Grass

My latest post on the insidious missionary organization Hayovel, who slither through the fields of the Shomron region thanks to the support of religious Jews. Today's focus is the unscrupulous Jewish vintners who sell out Am Yisrael for greed. It is a veritable horror story but it is true.

Be careful which Israeli wines you purchase. Any vintner who uses xtian labor should be boycotted as far as I'm concerned. We should all make an effort to support those Jews who resist the economic temptation of "free labor". "Snakes In The Vineyard" is now featured in The Jewish Press: http://www.jewishpress.com/indepth/columns/fuchs-focus/snakes-in-the-vineyard/2017/08/07/

Preemptive Attack Or Premature Burial

Video by JerusalemOnline

Originally posted in The Jewish Press: Preemptive Attack Or Premature Burial

Monstrous video footage from Yavne, where an Arab savage repeatedly attacked a Jewish worker with a knife in the middle of a supermarket. The victim remains in serious condition. All Arabs have access to knives, and you don't need a combat knife to attack someone. Basic kitchen implements. They all have them. It all begins with awareness. Basic awareness, and a head that perceives one's surroundings. I am reposting a piece I write a little while back, in response to a renewed series of Arab knife attacks on Jews. Be safe! http://www.jewishpress.com/indepth/columns/fuchs-focus/pre-emptive-attack-or-premature-burial/2017/02/13/

Painted In Blood

Reflections on the recent terror attack where an Arab savage murdered three Jews in Halamish. Now featured in The Jewish Press: Painted In Blood

May Hashem avenge their blood! And may the creature who murdered them be beaten to death in his hospital bed.

Reform's Naked Agenda

Reflections on the recent controversy relating to the issue of egalitarian prayer at the Western Wall. Now featured in The Jewish Press in my column "Fuchs Focus". Find out a true Torah perspective on this issue: http://www.jewishpress.com/indepth/columns/fuchs-focus/reforms-naked-agenda/2017/07/10/

Islam

http://www.jewishpress.com/indepth/columns/fuchs-focus/islam/2015/01/14/

Political correctness is going to destroy the world. The world has yet another example today of Islamic monstrosity from Eurabia. The Europeans will never wake up. America has yet to address the problem properly. And Israel marries the worst aspects of European relativism, with such un-Jewish notions as "tohar haneshek" (the purity of the rifle) and "havlaga" (self-restraint) My reflections on Islam. Originally featured in The Jewish Press.

The New Peace Movements Exposed

Now featured in "The Jewish Press": http://www.jewishpress.com/indepth/columns/fuchs-focus/the-new-peace-movements-exposed/2017/05/30/

It is time once again, G-d help me! to expose the contrived foolishness of the new Jewish "peace movements", those obnoxious groups comprised of bored liberal Anglo-Jews with too much time on their hands. Ironically, the activism of many of these individuals is a definite consequence in some cases of the supposed “exploitative capitalism” many of them rail against. Yet foolishness often comes to those with the sense that one has time on his hands, or with those who harbor the notion of a unique message or teaching they must offer the world. Narcissism and nonsense often mate.

An amalgam of names: “Alternative Action”, LAVI, The Home, and a handful of others come to mind. The oft mentioned calls for a “New Generation” to have a “New Conversation”. They often overlap with one another and engage in joint projects. And despite their insistence that they are not the peace industry, they are precisely that. The names may vary, as do their respective platforms, but they are birds of one feather.

The difference is that these peaceniks have another delusion. Unlike the “two-state suicide” camp of the classical left, these groups maintain another lunacy. The idea that we can coexist in one state with those who wish to destroy us, if we allow the other side (the Arabs or Muslims) to experience “their own personal narrative”. As they see it, if we abandon our “white, western, identify” and identify with a greater “Semitic” sense of self.

Here are some keys words which make up the skeletons of their nonsensical ideologies:

1.    “Narrative”- Generally refers to the moral relativism of identifying and empathizing with the Arab sense of Jewish wrong-doing. Often such people apologize for Arab violence and blame it on western interference.

2.    Indigenous- A cursory definition of a term I have discussed elsewhere and will not harp on. A selective interpretation of this nonsense term. Unlike others, these people self-identify as such but also grant the same status to Arabs. Hence the need to insist that we can coexist. Unlike other such pro-Israel activists, these activists add stupidity to silly sociology which believes in such a notion, which has as much validity as phrenology.

3.    Conversation- The fantastical belief that talking with select, token, polite Arabs and drinking coffee will solve real problems, which as the late Rabbi Meir Kahane always noted correctly were “immutable” problems.

4.    Western-The sense that the west is evil and everything “middle eastern” is wonderful. Of course, Arab/Islamic barbarism worldwide must be minimized and ignored, and is rarely addressed honestly.  So, these liberals must ignore genital mutilation, stoning’s, throwing homosexuals from roofs, castration, sexual slavery, classical slavery, honor killings, martyrdom. Once again, a classic mirroring of western liberalism in our contemporary period.

5.    Semitic Movement-The racial obsession and self-loathing which requires a magical belief in a shared “race”. According to this belief, since we are both Semites we must get along.

6.    Colonial- The enduring Arab jihad be damned. Western colonialism is the greatest evil. The Arabs don’t really hate us. The West creates this hate. The massacres of Jews in the 20’s and 30’s up to and including the barbarism of today has no place in their conversation. Not to mention the horror of dhimmitude since the times of Mohamed.

A marriage of magical non-intellectual thinking, pseudo-scientific idiocy, and liberal naivete. The idea that if we drink Turkish coffee with Salam, suddenly real grievances will disappear. The Jews of pre-pogrom 1929 Hebron also enjoyed the company of some of their neighbors. Until one day. That is why these groups ignore, minimize, or apologize for Arab/Islamic barbarism. It is the fault of the “WEST”, never the Amalekites on this side of the pond who detonate themselves on buses in our cities.

The new peace fools are on the move. This is the inevitable result when self-appointed gurus, peddle corrupt notions of justice to the deluded masses. The irony is that these silly Jewish indigenous rights advocates are poster children for western liberalism. Their self-identification is premised on the guilt-ridden liberal's creation of the notion of indigeneity (a false concept) which fuels multicultural reverse discrimination. And their obsession with peace, with those who only understand terror, is yet another example of the distorted liberal mindset.

In a recent Facebook post, I noted that the pseudo-babble of these "Alternative Peace" Jewish Indigenous activists often sounds like this:

"The paradigm of intertribal aggression is a symptom of retrograde ionization of the spherical schemas of our oppression. Because of colonial maladaptive dystopia deprivation, the oppressed class is subjugated beneath the heel of capitalism's boot, and thus lashes out to his/her/it's equally exploited peers in a version of cosmic counter-maneuvering to avoid the real problems. Squares are only squares because the white man told us they were. By deconstructing the false narrative of Eurocentric privilege, squares can become round, and round can also be triangular. By allowing my understanding of cosmological interpretation to allow yours to contradict mine, our lives take on meaning and we become one. When Hassan says “Itbach El Yahud”, we Jews need to process his feelings through his prism of active consciousness, and thus reinterpret perceived aggression as a symptom of our own subjugation by Europeans. By rejecting European fruit and replacing them with majul dates and halva, we redeem the shared narrative of Semitic symbiosis and indigenous hegemony.”

Silliness aside, to my Caucasian Ashkenazi colonized ear, they sound precisely like this.

These “new peace” activists may think they are "raging against the machine", but in truth they are an amalgam of "fools on parade". But the college campuses are inundated with such people, and these are their target audiences. The kinds of people who may try to reconcile their Jewish identify in a liberal, progressive, manner which satisfies their essential beliefs. So, the obligation is to expose these groups and show the un-Jewish nature of these groups. Far from being eastern, they are naked byproducts of the excesses of western liberalism, married to the soft-boiled science of morally relativistic sociology.

Some things you may not know:

·         On the Facebook page of one Yehuda HaKohen, a self-styled Jewish indigenous rights activist involved with the “Alternative Action” peace movement he empathized with the Arab nakba by noting: I’m not interested in belittling anyone’s pain but I think the message of Naqba Day would be a lot more powerful and easier for Israelis to empathize with if it didn’t occur each year on the [solar] date of our anti-colonialist victory against England. Why not mark the date a Palestinian community was destroyed or the day Israel decided you aren’t coming back? By marking the date the British left and the Jews declared independence, you make it easy for us to believe that this is more about us and less about you (and some of us really don’t need such assistance).

More wisdom from HaKohen during an online lecture:

• ·         (Minute 14:05) "And Palestinians are caught in the middle of all this. They're obviously victims of this, too."
• ·         (Minute 17:00) "There's a blind spot. We do have a blind spot when it comes to Palestinians. We're completely insensitive to their pain. It's true."

At a Yeshivah University debate: --

• ·         (Minute 1:25:34)"The Palestinian narrative is also true,"
• ·         (Minute 1:25:55) "In terms of values, I agree with 90% of what the SJP is saying."
• ·         (Minute 1:30:45) "They are people who are legitimately experiencing an occupation and want to resist it, and I as a human being can't blame them."

·         (Minute 1:36:40) "I live in Beit El..And there's a fence around Beit El, and I don't see any reason for that fence."

Alternative Action’s perspective on peace explains much: “Alternative Action views conflict between the Jewish people and other natives of the Middle East as an unnatural situation brought about by external forces. Because the closest people in the world to the Jews are the other indigenous peoples of our region, we strive for unity and peace as an ideal stemming from our belief that the Semitic peoples are brothers bonded together by common culture, ancestry and values.”

Some other fun facts to know:

• ·         LAVI and others support the racist thugs of the BLM movement who essentially function as a black KKK in America.
• ·         Alternative Action praised Fidel Castro as a great man when he died. A veritable butcher of innocents, and they saw fit to praise him!

I have opined on the threat of Arab nationalism and Islam many times before. And yet the examples of barbarism never end. Though his favorite meal is Jewish blood, the Arab/Islamic Amalekites will spill the blood of anything they deem antagonistic to sharia law. Including British school-children at an Ariana pop concert in Manchester. No one is safe, not even those clueless European anti-Semites who favor the savage over the Jew, and who sympathize with the mythical "Arab plight". We are dealing with the epitome of evil, a corruption so thorough and complete it usually negates the possibility for rehabilitation. This is the lesson of Amalek. Deal with evil totally and destroy it, or be totally consumed by the very same force you refused to recognize.

• Tragically, many mainstream, respectable right-wing hasbara personalities are flirting with these movements. When violence strikes Israel, such types will step away for a time, but their willingness to attend some of these events and give credence to these organizations and people, is a troubling example of the fickle nature of people. And of the continued inability of Jews to face ugly truths.

These new groups love hashtags because it appeals to millennials who often see these groups as an avenue to express their Judaism, in a manner which satisfies their liberal proclivities. So, for any free-thinking liberals, here are a few hashtags of my own. They contain essential truths which Jewish history has shown time and time again.

#NewGenerationNewHallucination
#TorahRising
#TorahNotTotems
#DrinkingTurkishCoffeeWontBringPeace
#BewareThePeaceGurus

*The author would like to thank a certain someone, who wishes to remain nameless, for sharing his considerable research.

Perverting The Law Of Mercy: Part II

Like so many leftist rags today, The Times of Israel is a popular online magnet to disseminate anti-Jewish values. A forum of filth where moral defectives frequently share their relativism with a large and often shockingly ignorant audience.  For Jewish writers, The Times of Israel will gladly share your writings if you meet the following criteria:

• you are an aggressive advocate for gay rights
• you are an unprincipled “hasbara” activist with an agenda, or a prominent messianic hasbara activist
• you are a member of a reform, liberal, or “open-orthodox” movement or organization
•  you are a card-carrying member of the “Women of the Wall” or a militant shrill feminist eager to rant about the evils of rabbinical patriarchy
• you are a peacenik, or a radical halachic innovator
• you mock and denigrate Torah values

In order to retain some modicum of credibility, some “conservative” or “right-wing” bloggers are permitted a place at the table, provided they moderate their sentiments and refrain from tackling provocative issues. On the other hand, if you maintain some principles and write something that rocks their general liberal sentiments, they will probably remove your article. This explains the ever-growing number of hasbara “right-wingers” who suddenly have a problem with TOI. When most writers complain about them, it usually follows a bit of professional narcissism. The script is predictable. One of their articles was removed and now they have a complex. In truth, any one with eyes can see that most of their featured articles are of a type. So why should anyone expect leftists to suddenly play fair?

I am proud to say that several years back my second article for TOI was the last one I ever wrote for them. The editors bounced me out so fast after I wrote an unflattering article about President Obama. Evidently, their original assumptions about a curly haired nature loving guy from the remote Negev were way off.

My writing is generally reactive to what I perceive to be societal dysfunction. The Times of Israel is often a good source to go fishing for freaks, in the same manner that I peruse other liberal forums to search for material. It is a medium to discover the dysfunctional faces of contemporary Judaism.

One of the TOI’s more notorious editors frequently receives criticism for her liberal views, where she often beats her chest for “oppressed Palestinians” and vilifies normative Torah values and traditions. In many ways, she is a caricature of a caricature, in the form of the archetypal misguided self-righteous liberal Jew. If you created her character as a work of fiction, no one would believe you. She is often taken to task for her articles. All of it is well deserved. But she is an easy target.

Many other writers fall under the radar, since they lack her notoriety. Some time ago, I wrote an article, “Perverting the Law of Mercy” in response to an article by Rabbi Daniel Landes entitled “Rachmanut for Gaza.” Here we had a purported religious Rabbi expressing a thoroughly un-Jewish position by advocating mercy for ghouls (in the manner of all merciful Jewish fools), and I felt it required a response. A chillul Hashem unanswered is a chillul Hashem run amuck.

Michael Lesher is another such deviant, and his recent article, “Crime and Punishment”: Fadi Qunbar, Elor Azaria and Israel’s Occupation” was one of the more grotesque things I have read in a while. Thus, Part II of the same title was born. Michael Lesher identifies as an orthodox Jew, and his opening comments speaks volumes about his mindset and the kind of pornographic views we can expect from him:

“First of all, I do not want to write about Elor Azaria. He is a cipher: a smirking, undersized bully who murdered a helpless Palestinian because the State of Israel put a rifle into his hands, corrupted him with a racist ideology, and hardened his conscience with a 50-year-long military occupation of the West Bank – to which Azaria added another victim last March.”

I found it ironic that a man whose profile pic accompanying his article resembles the visage of a grinning cartoon villain (pencil moustache, contrived smirk where the eyes betray the smile!) would have the gall to write about “a smirking, undersized bully.” Elor Azaria killed a terrorist. Yet in a shocking admission of Sodom morality, Lesher mourns the terrorist and vilifies the hero. Yet in accordance with the wisdom of never judging a book by the cover, the rest of the article betrays that in this case, the content is indeed FAR worse than the cover.

“But I do want to write a few words about Fadi Qunbar, the young Palestinian father of 4 who, on January 8, became yet another casualty of Israel’s occupation.

Yes, that Fadi Qunbar – the Fadi Qunbar whose life is now summed up in the media under the single word “terrorist,” because he used his truck to kill 4 soldiers of the enemy force occupying his land before their comrades gunned him down. The Fadi Qunbar whose death was not even counted in the headlines that screamed about “4 Killed in Jerusalem Attack” – four soldiers, that is – because a dead Palestinian cannot be mentioned in the same breath as Israelis, just as the newspapers that mourned his oppressors could not spare the ink to correctly identify the site of Qunbar’s death as “occupied East Jerusalem.”

After reading these sick sentiments, the following words danced through my head. “And to the informer may there be no hope” ……

Fadi Qunbar. The same Arab beast who plowed his truck into four beautiful young Jews and murdered them. Injured scores of others. Fadi Qunbar. A genuine man-ghoul who ended the life of the pure and the innocent because of his burning Jew hatred and his bloodlust to finish the Mufti’s quest.

Putting aside for a moment Lesher’s grotesque leftist views relating to his imagined “occupation,” his sympathy for a demon says everything we need to know about him. His hatred and callousness towards the brutal murder of fellow Jews is the reason Chazal had such harsh words for such people. Lesher would have made an effective capo or judenrat, since his writings, in effect, play the same role. One who would destroy his brother. One who has no love for another Jew. One who makes the perverse association of “victim” with a modern-day Nazi.

The four murdered soldiers were murdered because they were Jews, and in addition to the fact that they were soldiers committed to protecting fellow Jews, halachically they sanctified G-d’s Name. They are truly righteous Jews. Michael Lesher is a sneering self-hating grub, who lacks the morality of a sewer rat. Generally, we should love our fellow Jews, despite our differences. But then are other types of Jews. Villains who eagerly join hands with the enemy, to fight against their fellow brothers. For such people, the Torah mandates that we only show them hatred. And even in the absence of Rabbinical courts, there were often harsh measures meted out to such dangerous personalities.

Lesher’s article represents yet another low for TOI. 

Any forum which would feature such abominable views (and they frequently do!) should be vilified and exposed for what they are. Jews need to stop pretending that TOI used to be better. It was always a cesspool. But a cesspool rarely becomes cleaner with time. And given the general erosion of values, one can expect continued regression.

The word “Erev Rav” (mixed multitude) is often thrown around incorrectly, sometimes falling upon the heads of who do not deserve it. Michael Lesher is certainly a representative of the mixed multitude. The same can be said for those who would publish such filth. Lesher is a self-hating anomaly (presumably with a kipah) with a twisted soul. Sometimes a kipah reflects an awareness of The Almighty, by sitting squarely on our brainbox and reminding us that G-d exists. Other times, it merely covers a hollow head.

The Lesher’s of the world are welcome on TOI, since the latter love nothing better than sickos with kipot or pretenses of “orthodoxy,” to justify their own misguided beliefs. Michael Lesher is the worst kind of Jew, and despite his self-identification he is about as “orthodox” as the Pope, or a Satanist. A quick perusal of the web illustrates what he is. A self-hating cretin willing to write for The Electronic Intifada. He is an enemy. A diseased soul who sides with Arab murderers in their genocidal war with our people. Chazal had much to say about such defectives and none of it is good. There is really nothing more to say about such people. Like the Neturei Karta, they are the enemy. May they all merit the same fate as their beloved “victims.”

LAVI Exposed

Why is LAVI, a Jewish "indigenous rights" movement, a dangerous organization?

1. Among other things, LAVI is involved in defending Israel based upon our supposed Jewish indigenous rights (premised on bad history and science, and irrelevant to the thinking person) and see this as a viable means of defending our Jewish connection to Israel. As such, LAVI de-emphasizes the Divine claim, which represents our only true claim to the land. For further information on the foolishness of Jewish indigenous rights activists, check out the following articles where I elaborate on this issue: http://www.jewishpress.com/indepth/columns/fuchs-focus/263683/2016/03/03/ http://www.jewishpress.com/indepth/columns/fuchs-focus/we-are-still-not-indigenous-a-counter-response/2016/03/28/
2. Unlike other pro-Israel groups which seek to deny indigenous status to Arabs in Israel based upon their selective interpretation of the term, LAVI grants this identity to Arabs and based upon this, see them as "partners" for peace. It matters little for the G-d-fearing individual, since the Torah gives Am Yisrael the entire land, and when the halachic criteria of Jewish control of the land is met, neither Arabs nor any gentiles have the right to reside in the land, if they don't meet the halachic criteria for "resident strangers". In any event, LAVI is in actuality a peace movement and they endanger the Jewish people with foolish ventures. For more on this aspect of LAVI and similiar organizations, check out the following article: http://www.jewishpress.com/indepth/columns/fuchs-focus/the-new-indigenous-right-hardline-or-soft-boiled/2016/05/22/
3. LAVI embraces the vile and violent black supremacist movement "Black Lives Matter", whose members include those with blood on their hands, and many more who support and celebrate such actions. BLM terrorists are responsible for murdering innocent cops in America (black and white) and ordinary citizens. They desire a race war and in this regard they are merely a mirror image of the KKK but with more credibility among the left. See: http://thejudeanhammer.blogspot.co.il/2016/08/ignorance-begets-wickedness.html
4. LAVI foments discord  between Jews by presenting a false skewed image of romanticized non-white "indigenous Jewry" and a colonized westernized Ashkenazic Jewry which needs to "de-colonize" and "reclaim" it's identity. Judaism is comprised of many peoples and neither color, language, or region define us. The Torah alone is our standard. If Ashkenazic Jewry is no more authentic than Sephardic Jewry, neither is it less so.

This is just the tip of the proverbial iceberg. More to come.

We Are Not Indigenous

Featured in "The Jewish Press"

“When G-d began to create heaven and earth.” (Genesis 1:1)

“Abram passed through the land as far as the site of Shechem, at the terebinth of Moreh. the Canaanites were then the land. The L-rd appeared to Abram and said, “I will assign this land to your offspring”. And he built an altar there to the L-rd who had appeared to him.” (Genesis 12:6-7) - JPS Hebrew-English Tanakh

When it comes to serious Jewish matters, I have zero patience for stupidity. When “hasbara” (public relation) champions celebrate nonsense to curry favor with any group of non-Jews feigning friendship, it strikes a visceral cord. The Jewish failure to act logically and behave with self-respect is an affront to Torah. We cannot defeat the Arabs if we cannot understand what it is to be Jewish, or to appreciate what our correct reason for being is based upon.

The Indigenous Rights Movement

One of the more troubling fads of late is the hasbara version of the “indigenous rights” movement, which posits that Eretz Yisrael belongs to us Jews because we are somehow indigenous to the region. (What region, you may ask? The Levant? The Fertile Crescent?) Jews did not arrive at this novel notion by themselves, since those advocating for indigenous “rights” are generally activists and leftists who hate Jews and eagerly defend Arabs as supposed victims of Jewish aggression and Zionist imperialism. To date, the majority of such groups side with the Arabs. Only recently, have we seen the phenomenon where a handful of lone individuals representing “indigenous peoples” aligned themselves with popular hasbara movements.

Contrary to the assertions of many popular online “hasbara” champions, we Jews are NOT “indigenous” to Eretz Yisrael. An honest analysis of the term (always defined by those advocating for such a concept) reveals that to the extent that a definition of “indigenous” could theoretically apply to Jews, it could surely also apply towards other groups, including Arabs.

What is indigenous? The problem with defining the term is that those who advocate for indigenous rights created the definitions. They set down the definitions as divine revelations whose tenets are infallible. They tell us what indigenous means as it relates to their personal beliefs. Many Native Americans (indeed most) who advocate for “Palestinians” will interpret it one way to include Arabs. One particular prominent pro-Israel and “indigenous rights” activist, Ryan Bellerose, a self-identified Metis from Paddle Prairie Settlement in Canada, maintains the opposite. He asserts that Jews are indigenous, while Arabs are not. In any event, in his article, “Israel Palestine: Who’s indigenous?” Ryan sets down his accepted criteria for being an indigenous people:

“To begin, let us acknowledge that there is no rule that a land can have only one indigenous people; it is not a zero sum game in which one group must be considered indigenous so that therefore another is not. However, there is a very clear guideline to being an indigenous people. It is somewhat complex but can be boiled down to the checklist below, as developed by anthropologist José R. Martínez-Cobo (former special rapporteur of the Sub-commission on Prevention of Discrimination and Protection of Minorities for the United Nations).”

Further on, Mr. Bellerose continues:

“Martinez-Cobo’s research suggests that indigenous communities, peoples and nations are those which, having a historical continuity with pre-invasion and pre-colonial societies that developed on their territories, consider themselves distinct from other sectors of the societies now prevailing on those territories, or parts of them. They form at present non-dominant sectors of society and are determined to preserve, develop and transmit to future generations their ancestral territories, and their ethnic identity, as the basis of their continued existence as peoples, in accordance with their own cultural patterns, social institutions and legal system.

This historical continuity may consist of the continuation, for an extended period reaching into the present of one or more of the following factors:

·        Occupation of ancestral lands, or at least of part of them

·        Common ancestry with the original occupants of these lands

·        Culture in general, or in specific manifestations (such as religion, living under a tribal system, membership of an indigenous community, dress, means of livelihood, lifestyle, etc.)

·        Language (whether used as the only language, as mother-tongue, as the habitual means of communication at home or in the family, or as the main, preferred, habitual, general or normal language)

·        Residence in certain parts of the country, or in certain regions of the world

·        Religion that places importance on spiritual ties to the ancestral lands

·        Blood quantum – that is, the amount of blood you carry of a specific people to identify as that people. The concept was developed by colonialists in order to eventually breed out native peoples.”

Frankly, I am not interested in this general discussion since I cannot concern myself with the issues of the “indigenous peoples” of the world. Furthermore, the pseudo-academic ramblings of some leftist sociologist who writes statements for the United Nations has no bearing on my beliefs. Nor are they relevant to Jewish concerns. From a Torah perspective, the Arabs have no rights to Eretz Yisrael, nor do any non-Jews, even among the most noble and righteous of them. Mr. Bellerose is willing to grant Arabs “rights of longstanding presence.” I am not. Because the Rambam and the classical rishonim and acharonim say differently.

Fortunately, such concepts are both irrelevant and unnecessary for Jews who follow Torah. Eretz Yisrael belongs to us Jews exclusively, for one simple reason: G-d gave it to us. From a Torah perspective, the false claims of other groups who argue likewise are irrelevant, since their ideologies arose long after G-d revealed Divine truths at Mount Sinai.

Yet the indigenous rights movement as it relates to Jews is not only foolish, it is dangerous, since even the most well intended advocates harbor un-Jewish notions far removed from Torah values. They have become spokespersons for Jewish values, when their ideas are antithetical to Torah. They would like to see indigenous rights applied to other groups in Israel, not just Jews. From the Torah perspective, this is entirely incompatible with Halacha. Whether advocating for a purely secular Israel, or a pluralistic Israel allowing equal rights to all faith communities, none of these are in accordance with Halacha.

On a more troubling note, some of these indigenous rights activists have alliances and friendships with missionary groups and prominent messianic personalities. On their trips to Israel and across the U.S., they often meet and greet these individuals, and in doing so, betray that they are not people who have our best interest at heart. They are not a monolithic entity, yet it is fair to say that these activists all have their own agendas. Many sensible Jews support their campaigns, and the dangerous claim that our right to Eretz Yisrael is, at the very least, partially due to indigenous rights.

Racial Nonsense

“Indigenous rights” is a multicultural strain of thinking that ironically many normal Jews who usually reject such notions accept without question. They accept the definitions of indigenous activists, which always remain vague enough to avoid scrutiny, and are imbued with the kinds of racist, blood-based theories that would be rejected outright if suggested by any mainstream group. Anyone who cites “blood quantum” in any context, other than to provide a blood transfusion should trouble us. Such ideas certainly have no basis in Torah. Yet in this case, since a handful of activists are willing to apply this exotic term to Jews, many hasbara types enjoy the prospect of appearing native.

Historical Difficulties

“Most writers on American Indian subjects are bothered by changing intellectual trends and fashions, which dictate new mythologies. Anglo-Americans, above all, have been troubled by guilt feelings, morality, and hypocrisy, whether direct or in reverse. Any ideology tends to obscure perspectives and reality.” (Comanches: History of A People, Fehrenbach, T.R. Preface xiv)

“Every, as the lords of the conquered Mexica admitted to Cortez, it was the way of life for men to seize new lands with shield and spear. The Amerindian world of North America was rent with ancient festering hatreds. (ibid. 25)

Consider the situation with Amerindians in North America. Contrary to the tenets of politically correct history, the notion of indigenous rights as it is often applied to them is historically problematic. Never one to take unbridled political correctness sitting down, I reject the contemporary portrayal of all “native Americans” as peaceful environmentalists. Savagery was not the sole domain of “the white man,” since long before there were white men on the continent, Native Americans butchered one another. The archeological records attest to this fact; they expelled and killed one another.

As an example, one can look at the histories of the migration of Native American whose peoples originated in Asia and migrated towards North America. Given the origins of their people, the following questions are surely reasonable:

Ø  Did such people abandon their indigenous status to their original lands when they migrated? Did they retain indigenous statuses in both regions?

Ø  What is the indigenous natures of tribes who displaced and exterminated other tribes from different regions during the many brutal campaigns of warfare that tribal people’s engaged in with other Native Americans?

Ø  In the case of American Indians who earned indigenous claims through blood and warfare towards other tribes, might Europeans who came to North America not make the same claims? Those who came later simply bested those who lacked better weapons and resources. (I state simply in the interest of theoretical discussion, without opining on nuances of the morality of the overall conflict.)

Those activists who argue for Jewish indigenous rights ignore the historical record conveyed in the Torah of indigenous “First Nation” people who fell under our sword. Non-believers may question the authenticity of the biblical account, but even a bible denier cannot reject the historical record. They were here first. Most honest Native Americans see parallels with Jews who entered “Canaan” with colonizing Europeans, who “stole land” from the Indians.

From a Jewish perspective, the notion of a blood-based identity is an affront to Judaism, which accepts the genuine convert. Our connection to Torah is based upon adherence to the law rather than imagined notion of race. In a sense, the Jewish desire to argue “indigenous rights” is a reaction formation to absurd Arab assertions that they are the descendants of Canaanites.

G-d gave us the land of Israel, despite the presence of “indigenous” peoples who were there long before us. It did not matter, since The Almighty created everything. Upon entering the land, our mandate was clear. Clean the land of the “indigenous” inhabitants.

I understand that many secular Jews are uncomfortable with religious claims that contradict their worldview. I disagree with them, but I understand where they are coming from. In the absence of Torah knowledge, religious claims are meaningless. What I cannot fathom is that so many religious Jews latch on to un-Jewish theories to justify our Divine inheritance. I do not require an indigenous claim. I have the same claim that motivated the great Joshua to conquer Eretz Yisrael from the pagan Canaanites who were already residing there when we Jews first arrived.

We Jews are not Philistines, Canaanites, nor Jebusites. We were the conquerors of the former on a Divine mission. Indeed, our failure to purge Eretz Yisrael of these indigenous types is something the Torah repeatedly warned about, and is the direct cause of the land vomiting us out. Divine rights are the only arguments that have any meaning to me as a religious Jew.

A self-respecting Jew need never be ashamed to speak the truth of Tanach, which records our only true claim to Israel. Balfour Declarations and U.N. votes are of zero worth for the Torah Jew. A disconnected Jew may be ashamed of the religious claim. A genuine tragedy, since it is the only moral claim we Jews can hang our hats on. In the absence of that, we are merely one more example of colonizers who claimed a plot of land.

Indigenous Definitions

Perhaps the greatest response to Ryan Bellerose relates to the dilemma he raises at the conclusion of his article, “Israel Palestine: Who’s Indigenous?”:

“Now you might ask, why is this important? It is important to indigenous people because we cannot allow the argument that conquerors can become indigenous. If we, as other indigenous people, allow that argument to be made, then we are delegitimizing our own rights.

If conquerors can become indigenous, then the white Europeans who came to my indigenous lands in North America could now claim to be indigenous. The white Europeans who went to Australia and New Zealand could now claim to be indigenous. If we, even once, allow that argument to be made, indigenous rights are suddenly devalued and meaningless. This is somewhat peculiar, as those who are arguing for Palestinian “indigenous rights” are usually those who have little grasp of the history, and no understanding of the truth behind indigenous rights.”

Those Troublesome Canaanites
Therein is our Jewish answer. Based upon our biblical claims, we Jews cannot be indigenous, since we conquered the Canaanites. According to Bellerose’s definition, our Jewish biblical account renders us as conquerors. As such, those who believe in Torah cannot subscribe to his theories. Advocates for indigenous Jews can never answer these questions. What do we do with the Canaanites? Perhaps a better question is, what did we do, or what should we have done to the Canaanites?

The great biblical and talmudic commentator Rashi destroys the “indigenous rights argument” with his commentary on the first verse in the Book of Genesis. He cites Rabbi Yitzchak who questioned why the Torah began in this manner detailing creation rather than from the first mitzvah. This would make sense since the Torah essentially deals with Halacha. He answers that the Torah began with creation so that the nations in the future when they pointed out our conquest of the 7 Nations, the Jewish people could answer that the whole world belongs to Hashem. He can give it to whichever people He desires. At the time, he saw fit to give it to the Canaanites, and then he removed it from their control and gave it to us.

Case closed. The indigenous argument loses.

From a Torah perspective, the notion that we Jews have a claim to Eretz Yisrael based upon “indigenous rights” is absurd. We are not "indigenous" to Israel. Indigenous is a nonsense term which race obsessed multiculturalists use. Israel belongs to the Jewish nation, because G-d gave it to us. We conquered the Canaanites, and now it is ours. Our claim to Eretz Yisrael is Divine inheritance. Indigenous claims amount to pseudo-science, which in turn, would grant indigenous rights to practically every other minority group living in Israel today. In fact, this is the intention of many who advocate for such a concept.

Fellow Jews: leave the indigenous argument where it belongs. In the halls of the U.N. G-d gave us the land of Israel and that is enough.