I don't quite understand the BBC. The French I understand ? they're afraid. They allowed so many Arab Islamists into their country, in their naivete and anti-Semitic davka-ism (as in davka let's let in the enemies of the Jews), that they now have a huge group of people who use violence to intimidate the people and the politicos. But I don't understand the BBC. Don't they see what the French did to themselves? Are they proposing that Britain do the same?
So I figured I'd take out my "crystal ball" and try to predict what would happen if, has v'shalom (G-d forbid), what they want to happen (that is, that Israel would cease to exist) would happen.
And it came to me in a dream (or, rather, a nightmare). It's the year 2154. The population of the world is about one million. The landscape is dotted with mosques. There is one lone church, but you can't tell it's a church from outside. There are no synagogues, no Buddhist temples, no Hindu shrines. You can't see the faces or shapes of about 1/4 of the people (I suspect those are girls and women). Deserts have grown ? the Sahara now covers about 85% of the African continent, actually merging with the Kalahari at some point.
There is one newspaper and one TV news service for the entire world. It is in Arabic. This is the only language spoken or written in the world. But that doesn't matter anyway, since barely anyone can read. All they learn in school is about Allah and how blessed it is to die for Allah (nobody ever talks about living for Allah or for anyone or anything else).
The news services all blame the Jews for all the ills of the world, despite the fact that the Jews were all murdered before the year 2100. There are plenty of oil reserves, but there is no one to buy the barrels and barrels of oil that are piling up along the coast of the Arabian Sea.
There is no freedom as we Westerners have had. Women cannot go out by themselves; they are required to be covered from head to toe, with only their eyes peeking out from behind heavy material. Girls who go against their fathers' wishes are often murdered in "honor" killings. This happens so frequently that the population of females in the world is so much lower than the population of males. There is no religion besides Islam and even this is the strictest form of Islam. Even the smallest transgression is punishable by death, including criticizing or speaking out against the government or the local religious leaders (who are often one and the same). There is precious little art or literature. There is no scientific research. There is corruption and abuse in all levels of society.
And, in my nightmare, all this started because the "bastion" of "unbiased" news information, the BBC, decided that they would fire anyone who said anything remotely critical of the Arab/Muslim states, but keep on its staff a man who calls for the cold blooded murder of Jews. Shakespeare, who wasn't exactly the most philo-Semitic of all authors, in The Merchant of Venice, gave a human face to Jews when Shylock made his famous "Hath not a Jew?" speech: "I am a Jew. Hath not a Jew eyes? Hath not a Jew hands, organs, dimensions, senses, affections passions? ?If you prick us, do we not bleed? If you tickle us, do we not laugh? If you poison us, do we not die? And if you wrong us, shall we not revenge?"
Jews are no different from other people. There are good Jews and there are evil Jews. There are good Christians and there are evil Christians. There are good Muslims and there are evil Muslims.
I have yet to understand why it is that people are so set against Israel. They ignore the suppression in the Palestinian Authority territories. They ignore the honor killings, the suppression of women, and the suppression of civil rights within the Muslim countries. Because Israel has a free press, there are stories in the Israeli press that criticize the Israeli government. But the Arab countries have censored presses. There is no dissension in the ranks, so to speak.
I am reminded of a sort of macabre joke that takes place in Europe as the Nazis were rising to power. Two Jewish men were sitting on a bench reading newspapers. One is reading a Jewish paper. He notices that his bench-mate is reading a Nazi propaganda paper.
"How can you read that collection of lies?" he asks his friend.
"What do you read in your paper?" the other man asks.
"Why, it says that the Nazis are evil ? they are suppressing our rights, they are taking our property, they want to conquer all of Europe?."
"Well," the other man interrupts, "the paper I'm reading says the Jews run the banks, the Jews have all the money. I like their news better."
Unfortunately, if we bury our heads in the sand and choose to believe what is easy to believe, we are playing into the hands of the 21st Century Nazis. We are playing into the hands of the hate-mongers and the enemies of freedom. We help those who want to destroy us and our way of life. We need to fight. We need to point to the evil whenever we can. And we need an army of writers, who use the pen to conquer the sword of evil.
So I figured I'd take out my "crystal ball" and try to predict what would happen if, has v'shalom (G-d forbid), what they want to happen (that is, that Israel would cease to exist) would happen.
And it came to me in a dream (or, rather, a nightmare). It's the year 2154. The population of the world is about one million. The landscape is dotted with mosques. There is one lone church, but you can't tell it's a church from outside. There are no synagogues, no Buddhist temples, no Hindu shrines. You can't see the faces or shapes of about 1/4 of the people (I suspect those are girls and women). Deserts have grown ? the Sahara now covers about 85% of the African continent, actually merging with the Kalahari at some point.
There is one newspaper and one TV news service for the entire world. It is in Arabic. This is the only language spoken or written in the world. But that doesn't matter anyway, since barely anyone can read. All they learn in school is about Allah and how blessed it is to die for Allah (nobody ever talks about living for Allah or for anyone or anything else).
The news services all blame the Jews for all the ills of the world, despite the fact that the Jews were all murdered before the year 2100. There are plenty of oil reserves, but there is no one to buy the barrels and barrels of oil that are piling up along the coast of the Arabian Sea.
There is no freedom as we Westerners have had. Women cannot go out by themselves; they are required to be covered from head to toe, with only their eyes peeking out from behind heavy material. Girls who go against their fathers' wishes are often murdered in "honor" killings. This happens so frequently that the population of females in the world is so much lower than the population of males. There is no religion besides Islam and even this is the strictest form of Islam. Even the smallest transgression is punishable by death, including criticizing or speaking out against the government or the local religious leaders (who are often one and the same). There is precious little art or literature. There is no scientific research. There is corruption and abuse in all levels of society.
And, in my nightmare, all this started because the "bastion" of "unbiased" news information, the BBC, decided that they would fire anyone who said anything remotely critical of the Arab/Muslim states, but keep on its staff a man who calls for the cold blooded murder of Jews. Shakespeare, who wasn't exactly the most philo-Semitic of all authors, in The Merchant of Venice, gave a human face to Jews when Shylock made his famous "Hath not a Jew?" speech: "I am a Jew. Hath not a Jew eyes? Hath not a Jew hands, organs, dimensions, senses, affections passions? ?If you prick us, do we not bleed? If you tickle us, do we not laugh? If you poison us, do we not die? And if you wrong us, shall we not revenge?"
Jews are no different from other people. There are good Jews and there are evil Jews. There are good Christians and there are evil Christians. There are good Muslims and there are evil Muslims.
I have yet to understand why it is that people are so set against Israel. They ignore the suppression in the Palestinian Authority territories. They ignore the honor killings, the suppression of women, and the suppression of civil rights within the Muslim countries. Because Israel has a free press, there are stories in the Israeli press that criticize the Israeli government. But the Arab countries have censored presses. There is no dissension in the ranks, so to speak.
I am reminded of a sort of macabre joke that takes place in Europe as the Nazis were rising to power. Two Jewish men were sitting on a bench reading newspapers. One is reading a Jewish paper. He notices that his bench-mate is reading a Nazi propaganda paper.
"How can you read that collection of lies?" he asks his friend.
"What do you read in your paper?" the other man asks.
"Why, it says that the Nazis are evil ? they are suppressing our rights, they are taking our property, they want to conquer all of Europe?."
"Well," the other man interrupts, "the paper I'm reading says the Jews run the banks, the Jews have all the money. I like their news better."
Unfortunately, if we bury our heads in the sand and choose to believe what is easy to believe, we are playing into the hands of the 21st Century Nazis. We are playing into the hands of the hate-mongers and the enemies of freedom. We help those who want to destroy us and our way of life. We need to fight. We need to point to the evil whenever we can. And we need an army of writers, who use the pen to conquer the sword of evil.