For anyone who thought that that the Netanyahu government would be good for the Jewish presence in Judea and Samaria, Thursday morning’s destruction of Maoz Esther should come as an awakening.

Maoz Esther was founded a year and a half ago in memory of Esther Galia, who was shot and killed by terrorists on her way home to Kochav Hashachar. The fledgling community is only a few hundred meters away from Kochav Hashachar, on the side of a hilltop which could be described as “in the middle of nowhere” and has nothing but thorns and more thorns.

Five families currently live in Maoz Esther, and an active synagogue named Shirat Yonadav serves dozens of people every Sabbath. The synagogue is named for Yonadav Hirschfeld, who was murdered in the Merkaz Harav terrorist attack and whose family still lives in Kochav Hashachar.

To the government of Israel and to the nations of the world Maoz Esther is “illegal”. As for the Bedouin encampment on the next hill over, just as “illegal”, nobody seems to mind. It is my guess that if anyone would try to knock that down, every single government in the world would condemn Israel.

The five families who live in Maoz Esther are Jewish, and the Israeli government doesn’t seem to want Jewish families to live in Judea and Samaria, the cradle of Jewish civilization.

Anyone who thinks that the issue is the “illegality” of the site should remember that this isn’t the first time in history people have been opposed to Jews living in the Land of Israel.

In 1900 it was the Ottoman Empire which hindered Jewish efforts to buy land in Israel, in 1918 it was the British, and after 1948 it was the Jordanians who conquered Judea and Samaria during Israel’s War of Independence, preventing Jews from living there.

In 2009, the tables have turned. It is now the Israeli government which hinders the efforts of Jews to purchase land and build homes in the Land of Israel.

It was Ariel Sharon, who would ironically later carry out the Disengagement from Gaza, who originally said, “The status of Gush Katif is the same as the status of Tel Aviv to us.” He was right then and his words are still true now.

The Arabs and the rest of the world don’t want us out of Judea and Samaria. They want us out of Israel. Gush Katif, Hevron, Maoz Esther – they’re all the same. If we don’t fight for them now, we’ll find ourselves fighting for Jerusalem, Haifa, and Tel Aviv next.

G-d brought the Jewish people back to the Land of Israel after 2,000 years. Let’s try and keep what He gave us.

 Terrorists of a Feather

Uri Avnery is quite literally the godfather of Israeli anti-Zionism and anti-Semitism. Long before "Post-Zionism" became the pagan theology of Israel's radical Left, Avnery was calling for an end to Zionism and to Israel in his book "Israel without Zionists," crayoned and published by him in the late 1960s. At the time, Avnery was the publisher of the semi-pornographic scandal sheet "Haolam Hazeh," Israel's answer to National Enquirer in the US. Avnery ran for Knesset and got voted in briefly on a protest vote by the same sorts of people who might vote for Alfred E. Neuman or for Homer Simpson in other places. He was dishonorably involved in the complex matters surrounding the Kastner court case and controversy in Israel.

  Avnery throwing rocks at the Jews

And since the early 1970s he has been working full time for Israel's annihilation. He is a frequent writer for numerous anti-Semitic and pro-jihad pro-terror web sites, most frequently for "Counterpunch," the neo-Stalinist web site run by arch anti-Semite Alexander Cockburn, the guy who claims the Jews were behind the 911 attacks on the US and also behind the anthrax attacks in the US.

Avnery is the poster boy for the Israeli far Left. He epitomizes everything that is pathological about it. He is incredibly self-hating.  Unlike the other lefties, he admits he seeks for Israel to end all connections with Judaism and for Israelis to stop being Jews. He serves as Israel's Lord Haw-Haw (Haw-Haw was the British propagandist who spent World War II broadcasting pro-Nazi propaganda over the radio in English from Berlin).  Naturally he is beloved by anti-Semites all over the globe and frequently honored.

Avnery runs a splinter extremist anti-Israel "protest group" called Gush Shalom, funded by the usual haters of Israel from Europe and elsewhere.  He often tours outside Israel as the speaker sponsored by Islamofascist organizations.

Uri Avnery was disowned by his own mother, who regarded him as a traitor.  He repeatedly served as human shield for Yassir Arafat and other terrorists. At least one Israeli senior military officer called for Avnery to be shot as a traitor, as have some rightist hotheads like Baruch Marzel. He was beaten up and had both arms broken due to his treasonous writings as early as 1953. He claims that in 1975 someone tried to assassinate him, but I suspect this is nothing more than grandstanding and posturing to get himself publicity.

We earlier had occasion to comment on Avnery's Nazi ties and affections from when he was a youth in Germany. What we now know is that his ties with Nazis and even with Holocaust Deniers are not forgotten indiscretions of youth but are evident for us all now, even this week!

The Rense.com web site is a Holocaust Denial and Neo-Nazi web site run by a radio shlock broadcaster named Jeff Rense. Unlike Michael Savage, he is not banned from Britain for being a racist. Rense's web site is overflowing with articles about how the Holocaust is a hoax invented by the Zionists, and that no Jews were murdered at Auschwitz. If you think I am exaggerating, go into Rense.com and do a search on their search engine for the words "Holocaust" or "Auschwitz."

  Radio-internet shlock nazi Jeff Rense.

Rense is so openly Nazi and so whacky (it also promotes "theories" about UFOs) that even the most openly anti-Semitic Jews usually stand clear of it. Even people like Neve Gordon, whose articles appear on other Holocaust Denial and Neo-Nazi web sites, has never gone near Rense. The only exception to this is Barry Chamish, who is a regular columnist for Rense.com, but he is so utterly deranged that his appearance on the site probably just helps to discredit it.

There are some anti-Semites and Holocaust Deniers who DO write for Rense and who also appear on leftist anti-Semitic web sites like Counterpunch. Alexander Cockburn does not seem to mind sharing some of his stable of writers with Rense (including Holocaust deniers like John Chuckman, Henry Makow, and Paul Craig Roberts, and leftist Neo-Nazis like Stephen Lendman).

Well, to get to the point, this week Uri Avnery is publishing one of his countless bash-Israel screeds on Rense.com. It can be read here. You better open it, or else I fear you will think I am spoofing you again.

Moreover, this is not Avnery's first appearance there. If you go to Rense.com and write Avnery's name in the search engine, you will see dozens of other pieces by Avnery published on this Holocaust Denial web site. Obviously Avnery is not bothered by this. If the publications were without his approval he could sue Rense and its sponsors to force them to be removed, or just publicly repudiate Rense. While you are in the search engine, look up Holocaust or Auschwitz. My favorite Rense item on the Holocaust is this. You will find Chamish listed among the official site columnists on the front page of Rense.com .

To remind you of Avnery's personal history and connections with German Nazism:

The leading survivor of the early "Canaanite" (Israeli anti-Jewish) movement today is Uri Avnery, a fanatic anti-Zionist and anti-Semite, whose Bash-Israel pro-Hamas articles appear everywhere one can find anti-Semitism, on the Right and the Left. What is not well known is that Uri Avnery's original name was Helmut Osterman, born in Germany, and among the two leading figures in the "Canaanites"; and Avnery/Osterman was an admirer of Nazism.

In 1941, Avnery wrote a pro-Nazi article in the Paris journal "Shem", whose contents were later revealed by the Hebrew University Orientalist Prof. Yehoshua Porat in his book "Shelach V'At B'yado", page 182. Herr Avnery was also fond of using the concept of "Hebrew Blood" in a racial sense, in the same way as Hitler spoke of German Aryan Blood. In those days he was anti-Marxist, although today has no problem with associating himself with Stalinists. Back then he repeatedly expressed admiration for the great job Hitler was doing in remolding and renewing the German nation. Avnery was an open admirer of Nazi propagandist Alfred Rosenberg, adopted the latter's rhetoric, and repeatedly declared that he saw himself as the Hebrew Alfred Rosenberg (which, in a sense, he is). Avnery ran a tiny "journal" called The Struggle, an obvious imitation of the name "Mein Kampf". He ran his own one-man party, whose official salute was a Nazi raised hand.

Avnery in those days advocated creation of a Semitic "race" that would lead the Middle East to greatness when combined with a new Hebraic non-Jewish culture. As such, he advocated the end of the Jewish people as a national entity and expansion of the new race into its "Semitic Lebensraum" (yes, he used that Nazi concept!). He later wrote of his dream for a new and better Hitler emerging, an anti-Nazi Hitler who will lead the struggle for peace and will promote the Palestinian cause (well, at least he got THAT part right!).

Avnery then left for Israel/Palestine. In the 60s he ran a semi-pornographic magazine called "Haolam Hazeh," as the Israeli Larry Flynt. The magazine also did some scandal mongering. Avnery later ran for parliament and got elected by a sort of protest vote. [In the 1960s Avnery wrote "Israel without Zionists", the Bible of Israeli self-hating
leftism. Ever since, he has been the Reverend Moon of Israel's far-leftist "Post-Zionists" and he runs the small and violently anti-Israel "Gush Shalom" organization. He is friends with Mikey Lerner and often appears in Tikkun.

We wish you a Merry Nakba!

We wish you a Merry Nakba!

We wish you a Merry Nakba!

And a happy Cast Lead!

I am sharing this little story that I got on email, and admit that I don't know the source. It is possible that this never actually happened but I post it for its inspirational message.

Baruch

Several years ago, a rabbi from out-of-state accepted a call to a community in Houston, Texas . Some weeks after he arrived, he had an occasion to ride the bus from his home to the downtown area. When he sat down, he discovered that the driver had accidentally given him a quarter too much change.

As he considered what to do, he thought to himself, 'You'd better give the quarter back. It would be wrong to keep it'.

Then he thought, 'Oh, forget it, it's only a quarter. Who would worry about this little amount? Anyway, the bus company gets too much fare; they will never miss it. Accept it as a 'gift from God' and keep quiet' When his stop came, he paused momentarily at the door, and then he handed the quarter to the driver and said, 'Here, you gave me too much change'.

The driver, with a smile, replied, 'Aren't you the new rabbi  in town?

'Yes' he replied. 'Well, I have been thinking a lot lately about going somewhere to worship. I just wanted to see what you would do if I gave you too much change. I'll see you in Shul on Shabbos.

When the rabbi stepped off of the bus, he literally grabbed the nearest light pole, held on, and said, 'Oh Rebono Shel Olam, I almost sold a Yid for a quarter!'  Our lives are the only thing some people will ever read.

This is a really scary example of how much people watch us as JEWS, and will put us to the test!  Always be on guard -- and remember -- You carry the name of  HaShem on your shoulders when you call yourself a 'JEW'.

In the middle of the Six Day War in 1967, an American naval vessel that had wandered into the war zone was mistakenly attacked by Israeli military planes.  Israel apologized for the attack and paid compensation to the victims.

Ever since, the attack on the USS Liberty has become a rallying cry for Neo-Nazis and anti-Semites from around the world.  They claim that the attack was part of some nefarious Jewish cabal, whose purpose is never clear.  The great irony is that the case of the USS Liberty is used as a bludgeon to bash Israel for an accidental friendly fire attack on American forces by many of the very same groups that applaud Bin Laden and cheer intentional Islamofascist terror attacks on Americans.

While numerous serious journalists have long put the story to rest, the best debunking of all of the conspiracist "theories" about the attack was that of Michael Oren in Azure in 2000.  His arguments are too long to be reproduced here, and his piece should be read in full by anyone who wants to know the truth.  Here is just one segment:

The incident began with the ill-conceived decision to send the Liberty to the crisis-torn Middle East, a mere half-mile beyond Egyptian waters, in an area not used by commercial shipping and which Nasser had declared off-limits to neutral vessels. The Americans did not accede to Chief of Staff Rabin’s request for the identification of all U.S. ships in the area or Ambassador Harman’s request for a strategic liaison between Israel and the Sixth Fleet. The Liberty’s dispatchers, meanwhile, overrode naval orders to keep the ship in Spain, and then failed to inform the U.S. attaché in Tel Aviv of its presence near the war zone. These mistakes were compounded by the navy’s communications system, which delayed by as much as two days orders to the Liberty to withdraw 100 miles from the coast.52 Even after it was hit, the Americans had difficulty locating the Liberty, the JCS placing it at “60-100 miles north of Egypt.” If neither Castle, nor CINCEUR, nor even the President of the United States could know where the Liberty was, it seems unreasonable to expect that the Israelis, in the thick of battle, should have been able to locate it.

The Israelis, too, committed their own share of fateful errors, as the Yerushalmi report points out: The erroneous reports of bombardment at El-Arish, the failure to replace the Liberty’s marker on the board after it had been cleared, the over-eagerness of naval commanders, and worst of all, Ensign Yifrah’s miscalculation of the ship’s speed…. All of these elements combined to create a tragic “friendly fire” incident of the kind that claimed the lives of at least fifty Israeli soldiers in the Six Day War, and caused 5,373 American casualties in Vietnam in 1967 alone.

An even better documented book debunking the "theories' of the conspiracists and Neo-Nazis is "The Liberty Incident: The 1967 Israeli Attack on the US Spy Ship," by Jay Cristol. 

Nevertheless, anti-Semites of all stripes continue to use the 42 year old incident as a weapon against Israel.  Even Neo-Stalinist Noam Chomsky, who adores Islamic terrorism, uses the Liberty incident to bash Israel.  So do the Stalinist anti-Semites at the leftwing pro-jihad Counterpunch web site. 

But curiously, these people have now been joined by Barry Chamish, the UFO "researcher" and inventor of the fictional "theory" about how Shimon Peres and the SHABAK were the real murderers of Yitzhak Rabin.  Chamish has a long history of collaboration with Holocaust Denier organizations and web sites, and he is now proliferating a "theory" of the USS Liberty attack invented by Neo-Nazi organizations. 

Here are some of Chamish's new "discoveries," taken from a Chamish web site.  Chamish invents a claim that it was American President Johnson who ordered Israel to sink the ship:

 'The issue of the Liberty has deeply poisoned the American relationship with Israel. It is a far greater thorn than Israelis understand because, in fact, Israel did try to kill every sailor on board The Liberty.... Admiral McCain was not covering for Israel, he was protecting Pres. Lyndon Johnson, who ordered Israel to attack the Liberty....Cutting to the chase, it wasn't Israel's idea. Israel still did the killing, and muffed the attack with an amateurish show of its military prowess, but it wasn't the leader of the hit squad. That's far better than being left in the lurch as the mafia's don....
 "Of course Johnson gave the order. But he received his orders from higher up."  "So the attack on The Liberty wasn't an Israeli decision?" I asked.  "It was an American action forced on Israel," he answered....
We have the reason Moshe Dayan turned into Israel's top traitor of his day. As Chief-0f-Staff of the IDF, Dayan HAD to have given the order for his Air Force to sink the Liberty. Johnson may have given the actual command, the American navy did nothing to rescue the stricken ship, but Dayan had the blood of 37 American sailors on his hands and if he didn't play major league ball, he and Israel would be turned into friendless lepers.... There were endless debts to be paid, and America offered Israel $3.2 billion in annual aid to keep its mouth shut. But Israel bore the existential brunt of Dayan sinking close to the entire Egyptian navy, but accidentally keeping afloat one American ship too many."

Chamish has a long track record of inventing "theories" and "news" and imaginary nameless "witnesses."  I used to think that his claim that Simon Wiesenthal was in fact a secret Nazi agent was just about the silliest thing he could invent.  But his new fabrications about the USS Liberty may even make THAT look pale in comparison.

For more on the conspiracist sickness, see this.