Why Jews Don’t Hate Muslims that Hate Them*
Prof. Paul Eidelberg
Have you ever wondered why many Jews in Israel live in denial about Arab hatred? Have you been puzzled by their inability to face the obvious fact that the Arabs want to destroy them? I’ll limit myself to only reasons: (1) Israel’s failure to understand Islam’s love of death; and (2) Israel’s own love of life.
That Islam loves death was evident in the Iranian-Iraqi war, when Mahmoud Ahmadinejad sent tens of thousands of Iranian children to death by having them walk across Iraqi minefields. This necrophilia infects Palestinians who use children as human bombs.
Israel’s love of life generates Hesed or kindliness. An excess of kindliness, however, leads to foolishness and even self-righteousness. Israelis can’t fathom the depth of Arab hatred.
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“Why should Arabs hates us? We’re so generous. Look what we did for them in the ‘West Bank.’ We established a system of primary and secondary schools that greatly multiplied the number of Arab children attending classes. We built their first universities. We established new hospitals and nursing schools for them. Infant mortality was greatly reduced, and their standard of health was improved beyond recognition. And don’t forget how we constructed roads as well as water and electric power facilities and introduced modern methods of agriculture. Thanks to us, their income far exceeded their kinsmen in the Arab world. So why should they hate us?”
The self-righteousness or feeling of moral superiority of so many Jews has stupefied them. They simply don’t understand that hatred comes natural to Arabs—it’s a cultural phenomenon. Ehud Barak offered Arafat 97% of Judea and Samaria, including eastern Jerusalem, but the Arabs said NO! Arab hatred of Jews trumped Arab statehood. Did this change Barak’s attitude toward the Arabs? Not a bit. Did it affect Sharon or Olmert or Livni or Peres or Netanyahu on the issue of a Palestinian state? Not at all. These patronizing and benighted Jews think like capitalists: “Make the Arabs wealthy and they’ll junk jihad and become peace-loving bourgeoisie like us.”
Peres once said we can learn nothing from history. So this genius doesn’t remember the British Peel Commission report of 1937, which concluded that, “Although the Arabs have benefited from the development of the country owing to Jewish immigration, this has had no conciliatory effect. On the contrary, improvement in the economic situation in Palestine has meant the deterioration of the political situation.” Arab hatred of Jews trumps Arab prosperity.
Leon Uris understood this. In his novel, The Haj, Uris has the famous Orde Wingate say:
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The Arabs will never love you for what good you’ve brought them. They don’t know how to really love. But hate! Oh God, can they hate! And they have a deep, deep, deep resentment because you [Jews] have jolted them from their delusion of grandeur and shown them for what they are—a decadent, savage people controlled by a religion that has stripped them of all human ambition … except for the few cruel enough and arrogant enough to command them as one commands a mob of sheep. You [Jews] are dealing with a mad society and you’d better learn how to control it.
The novel’s central character Haj Ibrahim says this to a Jewish friend:
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You [Jews] do not know how to deal with us. For years, decades, we may seem to be at peace with you, but always in the back of our minds we keep up the hope of vengeance. No dispute is ever really settled in our world. The Jews give us a special reason to continue warring.
Uris has the cultured Dr. Mudhil elaborate:
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We [Arabs] do not have leave to love one another and we have long ago lost the ability. It was so written twelve hundred years earlier. Hate is our overpowering legacy and we have regenerated ourselves by hatred from decade to decade, generation to generation, century to century. The return of the Jews has unleashed that hatred, exploding it wildly … In ten, twenty, thirty years the world of Islam will begin to consume itself in madness. We cannot live with ourselves … we never have. We are incapable of change.
Later in the novel, Dr. Mudhil remarks:
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“Islam is unable to live at peace with anyone…. One day our oil will be gone, along with our ability to blackmail. We have contributed nothing to human betterment in centuries, unless you consider the assassin and the terrorist as human gifts.”
Some pundits may call Uris a “racist.” They lack the novelist’s clear-headed understanding of Arab culture. Unlike apologists, Uris appreciates the tragedy of a few insightful Arabs who know they are trapped in the decadence of “a culture of hate.” Hate incites murder. In all the lands Islam conquered, Muslims replaced indigenous places of worship—Christian, Jewish, Persian, Zoroastrian, Buddhist, Hindu—with Mosques. This could not be done without enormous bloodshed—estimated at 270 million victims! Those who speak of Islam as a religion of peace are either ignoramuses or on the Saudi payroll.
What happens to a culture in which hate is a chronic principle? When that principle gains ascendancy, as it has in Islam, it tends to close the Muslim’s mind. It breeds intolerance. It precludes self-criticism and undermines any incentive to understand and learn from non-Muslims. And of course it leads to murder.
Contrast Judaism. Hesed or kindliness is a fundamental Jewish principle. Kindliness prompts the Jew not only to help but also to understand and learn from non-Jews. (In the Babylonian Talmud, Pesachim 94b, Rabbi Judah the Prince, compiler of the Mishna, unhesitatingly declares in favor of a Gentile astronomical theory over that of the wise men of Israel.) The kindliness of the Jew enlarges his mind and makes him tolerant toward others. Accordingly, whereas Jews speak of righteous Gentiles whose place in heaven is assured, Muslims designate as evil everything that is not Islam and consign all infidels to hell.
But the kindliness of Jews can be as irrational as Arab hatred. This was evident among several Jews in Gush Katif. They showered with kindness the robotic Jews that had come to destroy their homes. The Sages warn us not to carry the Hesed too far.
The irrational kindness of many Jews is symptomatic of a national disorder quite evident among Israel’s ruling elites—their inability to hate with passion Israel’s genocidal enemies. Contrast another kind of Jew. In The Kuzari, Judah Halevi quotes King David: “I hate them, O God, that hate you” (Psalms 129:21). The haters of God, the Kuzari explains, refers to “those who hate God’s people, God’s covenant, or God’s Torah …”
Hatred, however, is futile if it does not issue in action. In Psalm 18:38-43, Israel’s greatest king writes: “I pursued my enemies and overtook them, and returned not until they were destroyed. I crushed them so that they are not able to rise; … I pulverized them like dust in the face of the storm…”
The Sages teach:
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“There is a time to kill, in the time of war, and a time to heal, in the time of peace.… There is a time to love, in the time of peace, and a time to hate, in the time of war” (Kohelet Rabbah 3:1). Consider the verse, “When you go forth to battle against your enemies” (Deut. 20:1). The Sages ask: “What is meant by ‘against your enemies’”? They answer: “God said, ‘Confront them as enemies. Just as they show you no mercy, so should you not show them any mercy’” (Tanchuma, Shoftim 15).
Consider the mercy the Israel Defense Forces showed the Arabs in Operation Cast Lead, warning them to leave their targeted homes where arms were stored. Colonel Richard Kemp (the former commander of British forces in Afghanistan), said: “From my knowledge of the IDF and from the extent to which I have been following the current operation, I do not think there has ever been a time in the history of warfare when an army has made more efforts to reduce civil casualties and deaths of innocent people than the IDF … in Gaza.”
Israel was nonetheless denounced in the world’s media and accused of committing war crimes by the UN Human Rights Council. Now Hamas is rearming, regrouping, and receiving billions from democratic America and Europe, champions of humanism.
By failing to hate Israel’s implacable enemies and to act accordingly, self-righteous and merciful Jews unwittingly become the cruel enemies of their own people.
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Pingback by Tweets that mention Israpundit » Blog Archive » Why Jews Don’t Hate Muslims that Hate Them* -- Topsy.com — November 2, 2009 @ 4:39 pm
we must not forget that Arabs hate each other more than us, the X-ians, Hindus etc
Comment by jerry1800 — November 2, 2009 @ 5:06 pm
All those who are merciful with the cruel will come to be cruel to the merciful. -Talmud Kohelet Rabbah, 7:16
this is what israel, the jewish people and the west need to remember.
it is a mitzvah, a commandment in the torah:
“If someone is coming to kill you, rise up first and kill this person” (Talmud, Berakhot 62b; derived from Deut. 22:26) Failing to kill the rodef[pursuer] is understood as a violation of the biblical command, “Do not stand by the blood of your brother” (Leviticus 19:16).
we are also commanded to remember amalek and hate what amalek does:
http://74.125.155.132/search?q=cache:m4z9qhjNGpoJ:www.rabbishmuel.com/files/torah_sermons151.serm-amalek.doc+hate+amalek&cd=3&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=us&client=firefox-a
so judaism, the path of the torah is very clear about: limits on compassion; self-defense; and specifically placed hatred.
in other words, it is a very sensible and humane approach because it is connected to the foundation of the eternal. humanity has made deadly errors in placing its own views above that which created it. uh, hellloooo??!!!
lastly, the jewish people’s strength comes not solely from the IDF or physical weapons, but from our dedication to our torah. all of our military victories are due to this. and our losses come from the opposite.
this is our basis. strengthen this through torah study, prayer, love of one’s fellow jew, doing the right thing, etc, and you strengthen all of israel.
Comment by bugsy — November 2, 2009 @ 6:25 pm
ps, david hamelech ‘hates those who hate G-d’ (tehilim(psalms) 139:21) and speaks of pursuing his enemies until they are crushed (tehilim 18:37).
the path of torah is a very compassionate path; but it is not unrealistic about the destructive potential of humanity. pirke avos does ask ‘who is strong? one who can change his enemy into his friend’. but this is not the same as the mitzvos/commandments listed above.
Comment by bugsy — November 2, 2009 @ 6:40 pm
It amazes me how the Jewish people do not even attempt to discredit islam in that same way they do with xianity, especially when it’s patheticly easy to do so as father zakaria boutros or even apostate websites such as Faith Freedom International have demonstrated (without fear might I add).
For example, why don’t they call islam out on the latter illogically claiming that adam was a muslim as well as actively highlighting and targeting other weak points within islam?
Comment by Wevv Jr — November 2, 2009 @ 10:23 pm
Narvey take note:
The word “Hasid” means a righteous and saintly person, who is fervent in the proper and joyful performance of the Torah’s commandments. Often, when you hear the word “Hasid,” you picture a devoted Jew dressed in black clothes, a follower of Rebbi Nachman or Chabad. But the original meaning of the word is much different, as King David describes in a Psalm which we recite every day:
“Let the Hasidim be joyful in glory; let them sing aloud upon their beds at night. The exalted praises of G-d are in their mouth, and a double-edged sword in their hand, to execute vengeance upon the nations, chastisements upon the peoples, to bind their kings with chains, and their nobles with fetters of iron; to execute upon them the written judgment - this is the honor of His Hasidim. Halleluya.” (Psalms 149)
Our leaders and most of the left here in Israel are wrong when they say over and over that our war is not with the Palestinian people. Not only Hamas wants Jerusalem. All of the Arabs have been indoctrinated with the same fanatical hatred for the Jews as Hamas. They all want Jerusalem, or, as they cry out in their cheers, “El Kudz! El Kudz!” They all want us out of here. They are all potential shihidim.
If there was ever a concept of Jewish ‘Jihad,” The Second Gaza War was it. As I have written on other threads here on Israpundit – Judaism is more than eating bagels and lox, and going to the movies on Motzei Shabbat )Sat eve,). True Judaism is rebuilding the Nation of Israel in Eretz Yisrael. True Judaism is fighting the wars of Hashem. We have a Torah commandment called “Milchemet Mitzvah.” The Jewish People are commanded to go to war to establish Jewish sovereignty over all of the Land of Israel. Another part of this mitzvah of obligatory war is to defend the Jewish People against enemies who attack us. The Gaza War was a milchemet mitzvah twice over.
There is absolutely no justification for allowing the enemies of Israel to continue to live in this Land. They must either be destroyed or transferred from our midst. For the sake of Jerusalem.
Jewish life has infinite value. There is a mizvah to exterminate those who threaten Jewish life. Those who oppose such extermination and seek to endanger Jewish lives by restricting the means of Jewish self defense are evil.
Thee is no middle ground here. Either you are with the forces of Hashem or you are with the forces of Allah. The two MUST fight until one exterminates the other. Peace is impossible in principle and “mercy” toward Bnei Amalek is against Hashem’s Law. Kapish?
Now go study Torah.
Comment by yamit82 — November 2, 2009 @ 11:12 pm
Ref. #5. Yours is really a very good question. Personally, I hate the Muslims. I do not allow my natural tendency to love people stand in the way of my feeling toward the Muslim.
Comment by Ed D — November 2, 2009 @ 11:16 pm
Yamit, you have put my feelings to words so elegantly. My hatred of Muslim is so great, that to kill them would be the same as swating a mosquito. There is no sane reason to allow them to reside anywhere in the land of Israel.
Comment by Ed D — November 2, 2009 @ 11:24 pm
I have stated several times that the American and European establishments are in actuality attacking Judaism and Israel is only the current target of opportunity.
But now the cat is out of the bag and this makes Golstone look like childs play. This is a direct frontal attack against Judaism without the built in deniability.
1. US Report Criticizes Israel’s Jewish Character
by Hillel Fendel
In its 2009 International Religious Freedoms Report, the U.S. State Department accuses Israel of “governmental and legal discrimination against non-Jews and non-Orthodox streams of Judaism.” The JewishIsrael organization, in its review of the document, calls it a “protracted denunciation against Israel’s Jewish character.”
The State Department report, released last week, analyzes religious freedoms in many countries of the world, and its section on Israel is entitled Israel and the Occupied Territories; the text explains that “Occupied Territories” includes “areas subject to the jurisdiction of the Palestinian Authority.”
JewishIsrael is an interactive internet portal that “provides a platform for ongoing monitoring and pro-active responses to aggressive missionary campaigns now targeting Jews for conversion in the Jewish State.”
“A disproportionate amount of the [State Departmen report,” JewishIsrael notes, “is dedicated to depicting Torah traditions and Orthodox Judaism as oppressive, and to reporting on Israel’s ‘growing’ but ‘harassed’ community of apostate Jews and Christian missionaries.”
The report emphasizes, “Proselytizing is legal in the country and missionaries of all religious groups are allowed to proselytize all citizens.” It then criticizes Israeli “society” by reporting, “Society’s attitudes toward missionary activities and conversion generally were negative. Most Jews were opposed to missionary activity directed at Jews and some were hostile to Jewish converts to Christianity.” Though this sentence merely describes the natural attitude of Jews living in the Jewish State after centuries of religious persecution, the implication is one of criticism.
The report notes that 56 percent of the public describes itself as traditional or religious, and that most of the remainder also “observe some Jewish traditions.” Despite this, it also includes the following statements of criticism: “The Government implements some policies based on Orthodox Jewish interpretations of religious law which thereby discriminates against citizens adhering to other religious groups.”
“The Orthodox Jewish establishment also determines who is buried in Jewish state cemeteries, limiting this right to individuals considered Jewish by Orthodox standards.”
“Jews in most professions were prohibited from working on the Sabbath unless granted a special permit by the Ministry of Industry, Trade, and Labor.”
“In order to marry in government-recognized ceremonies, Jews had to undergo marriage counseling administered by the Orthodox religious authorities.”
“The Interior Ministry distinguishes between Jews and non-Jews on identification cards by printing the birth date of Jews in Hebrew letters according to the Jewish calendar while listing that of others according to the Gregorian calendar.”Critical of Western Wall Prayers
The report is critical of prayer customs at the Western Wall, second in Jewish sanctity only to the Temple Mount just above it. The report states:
“Governmental authorities prohibit mixed gender prayer services at religious sites in deference to the belief of most Orthodox Jews that such services violate the precepts of Judaism. At the Western Wall, the holiest site in Judaism [si, men and women must use separate areas to visit and pray. Women also are not allowed to conduct prayers at the Western Wall while wearing prayer shawls, which are typically worn by Jewish men, and are not permitted to read from Torah scrolls.”
The report quoted that Jerusalem Institute of Justice (JIJ) as “alleg[in that the Interior Ministry refused to process immigration applications from persons entitled to citizenship under the Law of Return if it was determined such persons held Christian or Messianic Jewish religious beliefs.”
According to the State Department, the JIJ filed a petition to Israel’s High Court in May of this year on behalf of three Messianic Jews whose application for immigration was blocked by the Ministry of Interior. They cited an April 2008 High Court ruling according to which a person eligible to immigrate under the Law of Return could not be denied immigration rights on the basis of his identification as a Messianic Jew. “The case was ongoing at the end of the reporting period,” the report noted.
Noting that “most Jews were opposed to missionary activity directed at Jews,” the report still had this to say about grass-roots counter-missionary efforts in Israel:
“The Messianic Jewish and Jehovah’s Witnesses communities, among others, accused groups such as Yad L’Achim and Lev L’Achim, and Jewish religious organizations opposed to missionary activity, of harassing and occasionally assaulting their members. According to Yad L’Achim’s annual report for 2008, quoted in the newspaper Yom L’Yom, the organization ‘saved 174 souls from the clutches of the [Messianic and evangelica mission” during the year.’ The organization’s semi-clandestine Counter-Missionary Department, headed by Rabbi Alex Artovski, also claimed to have dozens of informants and infiltrators in the Government and in Christian or Messianic Jewish congregations, enabling the organization to force the closure of 18 religious meeting places and expel 12 ‘top-ranking’ missionaries from the country during 2008.”
Agudath Israel: Israel is True to Its Foundational Ideal
Agudath Israel of America stated, “Criticism of Israel for being true to its foundational ideal is ill-conceived.” The organization issued the following statement in response to the report: “Much of the criticism of Israel in the [repor is misplaced. The United States is rightly proud of its tradition as a republic that embraces no official religion. But numerous other countries, with equal pride, define themselves as Muslim or Christian. One country was created as a Jewish state. Israel’s choice of timeless Jewish tradition in the public realm and with regard to issues of personal status requires no apology. Criticism of Israel for being true to its foundational ideal is ill-conceived.”
For its part, the JewishIsrael organization concludes that the State Department’s report is a “clear case of Judeo-Christian tolerance and values becoming tyranny. In a sort of ‘clash of civilizations,’ Jewish heritage and tradition has been pitted against American-style Freedom of Religion and Democracy. The bitter irony is that it was Orthodox Jew Michael Horowitz of the Hudson Institute who in the mid-1990’s, teamed up with evangelicals and spearheaded the Congressional International Religious Freedoms Act of 1998 which would result in the current State Department reports which are now challenging Israel’s right to be a Jewish nation. That this law and subsequent reports would be used to defend missionary activity in Israel, promote ‘messianic’ Christianity as Judaism, and pressure Israel into withdrawing counter-missionary legislation, was written on the wall early on, and in a number of publications.”
Comment by yamit82 — November 3, 2009 @ 12:50 am
We should not hate those who hate us, any more than we should hate cockroaches, plague-carrying rats, malarial mosquitoes, or rabid dogs. If they become dangers to innocent life, we should exterminate them like the aforementioned pests, but we do not need to hate them when we do it. Hopefully Israel has the means (nuclear weapons) to act on this advice if the haters make it necessary.
Comment by Bill Levinson — November 3, 2009 @ 1:34 am
Missionaries do have their uses. I think Jack Chick should make another leaflet that compares his religion, whose fundamental assumption is that its founder (Jesus) died for his followers, to a religion whose founder (Mohammad) called upon his followers to kill and die for him. Chick would probably translate some of his leaflets to Arabic if Israel (or organizations in Israel) ordered them in quantities of 100,000 or more, and then they could be dropped in Gaza and the West Bank. It is important to make sure the pamphlets disperse instead of landing in one place, so all Palestinians will have a chance to read leaflets like “Sky Lighter” (about a Muslim boy whose leaders persuade him to blow himself up for Allah). Since Judaism does not seek converts, this would be the best approach.
As for missionaries in Israel, it is hard to see them gaining converts in a Jewish-majority country if the rabbis did their jobs and taught Jews why Christianity is not right for Jews (even though it is quite right for many non-Jews). Israel should not lower itself to the level of militant “Islamic” nations by passing anti-missionary laws, although of course actual harassment by missionaries (like any other form of harassment) should continue to be illegal. There are far more rabbis than missionaries, and they should not be afraid of an open exchange of ideas in a society where their religion and culture is dominant. In fact, anti-missionary laws would allow the missionaries to proclaim that Jews cannot defend Judaism in an open discussion. My essay “Operation Good Fences” shows how to keep the missionaries good neighbors.
Comment by Bill Levinson — November 3, 2009 @ 1:49 am
If you Americans did your job you wouldn’t have a Muslim problem. Islam is gaining more converts in America and at a faster rate than almost any other country so that in 20 years they could dominate the country without being a majority. I wouldn’t worry about Muslims from without but your next door neighbors I would be concerned with.
By the way I hope you never come here. We have enough problems with real and declared Christians without having to suffer closet ones like you. You would love Poland and Germany though.
Comment by yamit82 — November 3, 2009 @ 3:01 am
I think it is poetic Justice that Muslim Missionaries in a Christian Country are beating the Christians at their own game. So Levinson don’t preach to us.
A human being who has not the capacity to hate and hate his mortal enemies is not human. He is a programed liberal or a devout Christian. Maybe in your case both? In any case there isn’t a lot of daylight between Protestantism and reformed Judaism, which isn’t really Judaism, maybe they should call it Levinsonism.
Comment by yamit82 — November 3, 2009 @ 3:16 am
ease up yamit. cussing out levinson doesn’t help anything.
Comment by bugsy — November 3, 2009 @ 4:30 am
Re: #13
That is admittedly a problem in this country. It is politically incorrect to criticize militant “Islam” here, not that that ever stops me. Christianity is not all that powerful here any more, and that is in fact a problem. The militant “Muslims” are stepping into the vacuum that Christianity has left behind it.
I don’t believe in hating somebody who tries to kill me; I just believe in killing him before he can do it.
The Japanese samurai were enormously effective because they did not hate their opponents; in fact, they welcomed them as “honored guests.” A man who allowed himself to hate would have been killed very quickly by one who fought with total detachment. This does not mean that we should not foment hatred of the enemy among those who are willing to hate, and I have developed plenty of military-grade propaganda for this purpose. I do not hate militant “Muslims” who stone women to death, I just think they should be put down like rabid animals, but those who wish to feel a somewhat more primitive emotion should indeed be encouraged to hate them.
The difference is that Protestants worship God, while what Eric Yoffie and the National “Jewish” “Democratic” Council call Judaism seems to worship the Holy Trinity: Franklin Delano Roosevelt the Father, Barack Hussein Obama the Son, and Lyndon Baines Johnson the Holy Ghost. It wouldn’t surprise me if the NJDC also worships a golden donkey, and serves kosher ham and cheese sandwiches on Yom Kippur. Eric Yoffie’s Torah apparently says that Jewish law requires support for gun control, and of course for political candidates who support it. Maybe that is why missionaries are enjoying some success with Jews in the U.S.
Comment by Bill Levinson — November 3, 2009 @ 5:03 am
re #11
bill, you must see what jewsforjudaism.org and yad l’achim in israel say about the missionary problem.
it is very serious. i think israel should outlaw any and all kinds of missionizing and those who are caught should be deported. we are talking about the spiritual foundation of the jewish people.
and believe me, the xns are not giving up. on the contrary, they are finding more and more clever, and (ugh) “loving” ways to ensnare naive jews both in usa and israel.
many in the pro-israel camp advocatge making nice nice with the xn zionists (whatever the heck that means) in the face of the jihad. read yosef ben-shlomo hakohen’s piece, “when xn love can hurt us”
http://www.israelnationalnews.com/Articles/Article.aspx/7568
as well as
from one honest xn: pastor admits xns want to convert jews
http://www.israelsdestiny.com/Evangelicals_Who_Support_Israe.cfm
these two sources alone, along with jewsforjudaism’s information should give you very serious pause about the missionary problem today.
Comment by bugsy — November 3, 2009 @ 6:57 am
Bill, just because the Evangelicals, say they,”support Israel” doesn’t make them our friends. They have a total agenda to this and this makes them deceptive and dangerous.
Comment by tov — November 3, 2009 @ 8:01 am
It seems that whatever the topic, tov turns it into an attack on Christianity and Yamit uses it to attack Americans. Because this topic exposes Jewish weakness, Yamit felt a further need for smoke, and usurped Laura’s standing as Israpundit’s purveyor of four letter words.
Why don’t most Israelis hate Moslems? Because hating Moslems doesn’t do them any good. Yamit and tov, of course, are exceptions: They simply hate everyone, all the time, for no reason.
Comment by BlandOatmeal — November 3, 2009 @ 11:17 am
Levinson:
Islam is relatively tolerant. It accepts Christians at least as dhimmi. Judaism absolutely forbids any foreign worship in the Land of Israel: no altars, temples, or places of prayer. Islam tolerates churches. Judaism, if it ever again takes hold of the Land of Israel, would demolish churches here.
Judaism is the very opposite of tolerance. Judaism is about purity, and purity is oh-so intolerant of what it sees as impurity. “Live and let live” is antithetical to Judaism in the Land of Israel. “Let live” applies to Gentiles elsewhere: God gave them the seven moral laws of Noah, but otherwise they can live as they please. Judaism carved for itself a patch of land and applied to it zoning regulations. This land must be absolutely pure: an island of purity amid the sea of anything.
Purity is about doing; tolerance is about refraining from action. Tolerance is individual; any individual can be tolerant. Purity is by necessity collective: the finest person cannot remain pure in an evil environment. Even Lot had to leave Sodom. Modern people cannot hide in their apartments and engage in subsistence farming like Lot probably did; the continuous interaction with wickedness leaves purity no chance.
The Torah established the ultimate collective religion. Every major commandment is addressed to “thou.” Every Jew is responsible for everything that happens in his habitat. Recall the words we repeat every Shabbat: “Thou shall do no work on that day, neither thou nor thy son nor thy daughter nor thine servants, men or women, nor thine animals nor the stranger who lives with thee.” Animals are not subject to commandments; their owners are. Every single Jew is responsible for what happens around him: just as his animals must not work, so everyone in his sphere of influence, from the direct “your servants” to the remotest “stranger who lives in your land,” must obey the commandments. Just as the Jews must punish thieves and murderers who have done no harm to them personally, so we must punish other transgressors even though their offenses are private and non-violent.
The concept of moral zoning is commonly accepted. Tolerant Americans banish non-violent striptease bars to the outskirts of their towns or downtown areas. Europeans wouldn’t imagine homosexual gatherings in their government-owned cathedrals. Parental controls block what would be considered, in libertarian terms, neutral programming: there’s nothing objectively wrong in showing children sex scenes. Societies ban polygamy, a totally innocuous behavior.
The common fate of Jews takes precedence over any individuals freedom of expression. Religion always takes precedence over personal freedoms. Any organization requires its members to submit to its charter. If conscripts submit to the army’s procedures despite disagreeing with its policies, how much more Jews must submit to our religion?
Judaism is about justice: unrelenting, unforgiving, harsh justice aimed at maintaining moral purity in the Jewish community.
Judaism is isolationist: Jews are “the people who dwell alone.” Nehemiah ordered the Jews to send away their foreign wives, breaking up every family in Jerusalem. We accepted converts in numbers small enough that we could assimilate them; Nehemiah saw that the foreign wives were too numerous for safe assimilation and ordered them all evicted. And we accept converts on our terms: one does not become a Jew by thinking that he is one. Judaism believes in being the only truth around, in Jews being the only chosen people. In the framework of Judaism, any other faith is not just inferior, but abominable. We don’t hate other peoples, but we despise their faiths. And in our prayers we thank God for not having been born into a foreign religion.
Judaism doesn’t claim for itself the entire world or continent, but a tiny speck of land on which to set a morally exemplary society. The Torah lacks a concept of human forgiveness: it is harsh to the extent that witnesses must personally execute the convicted offender. Our legislator is wise: instances of forgiveness only encourage other evildoers. But modern non religious and even many so called orthodox Jews cling to what the rabbis called, “a mercy of fools,” forgiving the wicked.
Anyway any Jew or non Jew who disagrees is free to Live anywhere else and to travel to anywhere else.
I think gods is more appropriate and that makes them according to Judaism,Quite Pagan; That disqualifies them from setting foot even on an inch of soil in the Land of Israel, not to mention proselytizing, which carries the death penalty according to Jewish Law. Christian proselytizing to the Jews and especially Jews in Israel is a Christian imperative. whether openly stated in public forums or not.
I am sure you realize that the basic tenants of both Christianity and Islam is that their faiths have replaced Judaism and that ea. holds the penultimate theological truth. The Jewish return to the Land of Israel and the establishment of Jewish sovereignty has created deep fissures in Islamic dogmatic theology and no less among Christian Theologians.
Our return to the land and our successful defense of and developing the land and our economy shows what is for them as an ice pick through their core beliefs that the Jews hold the ontological truth and that we have always been right and they wrong. Our G-d is G-d and theirs is the false. They cannot abide this in reality and will do anything to reverse our successes so as to maintain their dogmas and theological revisionism, that each in their turn are the Jews replacements and holders of the divine truth.
America no less than any other country and probably even more so, has taken the lead in the effort to destroy Judaism, sometimes passively, sometimes overtly and at other times through proxies. Missionaries in Israel is just one of Christian Americas weapons for doing in the Jews. Missionaries seek to destroy Judaism and thus to their thinking any means justify their goals which is the eradication of Judaism and replaced with their beliefs.
In a biblical sense this conflict is between the Jewish G-d against the Christian and Muslim Gods.(They are not the same G-d)
I would call your thinking on this matter as “the tolerance of fools”.
Comment by yamit82 — November 3, 2009 @ 1:35 pm
Yamit, Uncle Nahum you know my feelings on this subject. I only pray that we can co-exist and be respectful of one another. We all believe in the same One G-d/God and I am sure this One G-d/God loves us all. We don’t need to be in completion for His Love. It should never be a conflict or against. It should be about respect for one’s belief.
We should not go about converting anyone but encourage them to be strong in their own faith. Missionary work should be limited to those who may not have God in their lives.
If anything missionaries should encourage and lending a hand in the rebuilding of the Third Temple uniting all Jews. This would be more pleasing to G-d.
Let there be support not conflict or against.
Comment by rongrand — November 3, 2009 @ 3:57 pm
It’s simple. Hate is bad for both parties. However the enemy must be neutralized, either by words or by force, but in either case without hate, just out of necessity. What Jews do not do, to their great loss, is recognize when force must be used.
Comment by Jonathan — November 3, 2009 @ 5:17 pm
[...] http://www.israpundit.com/2008/?p=18012 [...]
Pingback by Why Jews Don’t Hate Muslims that Hate Them* : 48288 — November 3, 2009 @ 6:00 pm
Re: #19
Which would make us as bad as the militant “Muslims.”
I take it that you don’t really want Israel’s Christians to convert to Judaism, because Judaism does not actively solicit converts. If you don’t want them to become Jews, shouldn’t they be able to worship in churches?
With regard to “zoning,” Orthodox Jews can certainly create what are known as gated communities in which they can make rules like no driving on the Sabbath, modest clothing for women, and so on. This will not infringe on the rights of Israelis who do not subscribe to these views, but anyone who visits the gated community has to agree to obey the rules. This should satisfy everybody.
I respect other people’s faiths even if I do not believe in them. Since your brand of Judaism does not want them to become Jews, what do you want them to do?
Our culture is in fact reducing the influence of all religions, including Christianity. They just closed some Catholic churches here because they cannot afford to keep them open, and this is a region of Irish and Polish Catholics to whom church is important. Unfortunately, this leaves a vacuum into which militant “Islam” can enter.
Christians worship the same Deity, but they have turned Him into a trinity–an idea that Jesus or his disciples may have gotten from the Hindus. There is plenty of evidence in the New Testament that they got ideas from Hinduism and Buddhism; the miracle in which Jesus feeds a multitude with a few loaves of bread is similar to an older story in which Krishna feeds the entire world with a single grain of rice. Jesus’ aversion to material possessions is straight from the Buddhist aversion to “material attachments,” i.e. allowing a desire for property and riches run one’s life. Hindus really believe that Brahma (Creator), Shiva (Destroyer), and Vishnu (Preserver) are three different aspects of the same entity. Christians turned this into the Father (Creator), Son, and Holy Ghost.
The idea of Jesus as the son of God, or an incarnation of God, comes DIRECTLY from Hinduism. A tongue-in-cheek cartoon idea (which you could deploy to Jews who might be influenced by missionaries):
Jesus: “I was born as a mortal human to save the world from evil.”
Krishna/Vishnu: “What, only once?”
The pagan elements of Christianity come from the efforts of missionaries to superimpose their religion on pagan religions. The Earth Mother, Mother Goddess, or whatever became the Virgin Mary. It is quite possible that missionaries told pagans, “We worship the same Goddess.” The Christmas tree was originally a tree that was worshiped by pagans, and so on. Mohammad may have superimposed the Judeo-Christian God on an Arabian moon god (hence the crescent). Islam and Christianity, however, both define their God as identical to ours.
Comment by Bill Levinson — November 3, 2009 @ 9:32 pm
No it would make us righteous Jews. Did it ever occur to You that Muslims are emulating the Jews of the time 7th century? Everything in Islam of any worth was taken from Judaism even the language.
Sincere Gentiles are welcome to convert to Judaism according to Halacha but it isn’t necessary, they just must renounce their Christian beliefs and the concept of the trinity and assume the observance of the 7 Noahide Laws.
You miss the point no Jew should be in the exile and even in gated communities the dominant non Jewish culture would corrupt every Jew and Judaism, All of Israel should resemble your concept of Gated Communities. One can see from your inane answers here, that You haven’t even a clue and it is equally apparent by your replies that you have no interest in finding out either.
Do we have a right to despise, to offend, to speak derisively? Most Jews have adopted a non-confrontational attitude: I’m not worse than you, but I’m no better, we’re all similar. Well, we’re not. Apples and oranges are different, and people like one and not the other. Why should we speak mildly of offensive views? Read early Christian writers, such as John Chrysostom, for vituperative attacks on Judaism; John had friends among the rabbis. Read Rambam’s derision of Islam, though he served a Muslim ruler.
The law of the Torah is straightforward: Jews are “the people that dwell alone.” We refuse to intermingle. There is a whole lot of difference between refusing association with a particular group, such as blacks, and refusing association with everyone. We refuse to intermingle not out of hatred for any particular group, but because we want to be alone. It is unrealistic to hate everyone, as the strength of the feeling would dissipate, but it is possible to distance oneself from all other peoples. Our distancing is entirely neutral; it is not provoked by hatred. That is sort of the attitude which leads you to close the doors of your house even when you don’t fear theft: you have a right to privacy, to practicing your peculiar way of life.
That’s the point. Jews who lead the Jewish life have the right and obligation to distance themselves from gentiles. In fact, gentiles rarely hate such Jews. The problem appears when Jews assimilate: the Inquisition was launched to investigate Jewish converts in Spain, and Nazism, too, appeared in the country with the most assimilated Jewry.
Assimilated Jews lose a religion-based reason to be different from gentiles. Their refusal to intermingle is an unjustified affront, indeed racism, as their Jewishness is a bloodline rather than a religion. But by inertia, even assimilated Jews cling to other Jews and remain somewhat wary of gentiles, which considerably insults the latter as such Jews shy from them for no reason. When the Diaspora organizations of assimilated Jews publish books like Shulchan Aruch or their leaders speak of Jewish chosen-ness, that is of course offensive to gentiles. In the cognitive framework of normal people, religious Jews with hair locks can speak of being chosen, but Jewish pundits who are no different from any gentile next door have lost such right.
Foreign worship by Jews is the ultimate wickedness, which we must reproach. There is no comparable obligation toward other peoples; we shouldn’t pour into the streets of Christian countries to announce our reservations about the immaculate conception. But we should make such views known to other Jews so that they don’t become messianic. So we’re right to criticize foreign religions harshly and derisively in books intended for Jews. It’s a contentious adult thing: if you fear being offended, don’t open our books.
Realistically speaking, Jewish books never call for violence against gentiles; our actions in the messianic era remain speculative. The criminal incitement statute is, therefore, inapplicable.
The Jesus mythos simply followed the traditional model of the ancient pagan savior-gods.
At the time of Jesus of Nazareth, as for centuries before, the Mediterranean world roiled with a happy diversity of creeds and rituals.
Details varied according to location and culture, but the general outlines of these faiths were astonishingly similar. Roughly speaking the ancients’ gods:
* Were born on or very near our Christmas Day
* Were born of a Virgin-Mother
* Were born in a Cave or Underground Chamber
* Led a life of toil for Mankind
* Were called by the names of Light-bringer, Healer, Mediator, Savior, Deliverer
* Were however vanquished by the Powers of Darkness
* And descended into Hell or the Underworld
* Rose again from the dead, and became the pioneers of mankind to the Heavenly world
* Founded Communions of Saints, and Churches into which disciples were received by Baptism
* Were commemorated by Eucharistic meals
Krishna was born of the virgin Devaki; the Savior Dionysus was born of the virgin Semele. Buddha too was born of a virgin, as were the Egyptian Horus and Osiris. The old Teutonic goddess Hertha was a virgin impregnated by the heavenly Spirit and bore a son. Scandinavian Frigga was impregnated by the All-Father Odin and bore Balder, the healer and savior of mankind.
Mithras was born in a cave, on December 25th, of a virgin mother. He came from heaven to be born as a man, to redeem men from their sin. He was know as “Savior,” “Son of God,” “Redeemer,” and “Lamb of God.” With twelve disciples he traveled far and wide as a teacher and illuminator of men. He was buried in a tomb from which he rose again from the dead — an event celebrated yearly with much rejoicing. His followers kept the Sabbath holy, holding sacramental feasts in remembrance of Him. The sacred meal of bread and water, or bread and wine, was symbolic of the body and blood of the sacred bull.
The celebration of Christmas on December 25 was originally the pagan birthday of Mithras, the sun god, whose day of the week is still known as “Sunday.” The halo of light which is usually shown surrounding the face of Jesus and Christian saints, is another concept taken from the sun god. The theme of temptation by a devil-like creature was also found in pagan mythology. In particular, the story of Jesus’s temptation by Satan resembles the temptation of Osiris by the devil-god Set in Egyptian mythology.
No Bill this isn’t what I had in mind. When I say target I mean Target.
Comment by yamit82 — November 3, 2009 @ 10:43 pm
And Scandinavian mythology says Baldur is supposed to return to life after Ragnarok. Meanwhile, Odin was hanged on the World Ash Tree (crucified) and then rose from the dead.
Since Christianity is older than this religion, though, it is possible that the Vikings got the idea from the Christians.
Comment by Bill Levinson — November 3, 2009 @ 11:05 pm
They had better support their churches lest they be replaced by mosques.
Comment by Laura — November 3, 2009 @ 11:13 pm
learnt a lot from this site, especially from Levinson. Kol hakavod w toda.
Comment by jerry1800 — November 3, 2009 @ 11:30 pm
This partially true. Remember and I am sure Uncle Nahum would know coming from NJ. As in Pennsylvania we had a lot of church closing, having said that these were in small communities where there were a number a ethnic Catholic church sometime a few blocks away from each other. Families started moving to the suburbs and those left behind are not able to keep them going.
My parish has grown and is the largest parish in the diocese with 3600 families and still growing.
Again, Christian and Jews need not be at each other. In fact I would like to see the Catholic church supporting the rebuilding of the Third Temple, why not. We should never be in competition but rather supportive of each other. What could be more gratifying for Jerusalem the capital of Israel, the Holy Land.
Comment by rongrand — November 4, 2009 @ 3:45 am
28. is corrected
This partially true. Remember and I am sure Uncle Nahum would know coming from NJ. As in Pennsylvania we had a lot of church closing, having said that these were in small communities where there were a number a ethnic Catholic church sometime a few blocks away from each other. Families started moving to the suburbs and those left behind are not able to keep them going.
My parish has grown and is the largest parish in the diocese with 3600 families and still growing.
Again, Christian and Jews need not be at each other. In fact I would like to see the Catholic church supporting the rebuilding of the Third Temple, why not. We should never be in competition but rather supportive of each other. What could be more gratifying for Jerusalem the capital of Israel, the Holy Land.
Comment by rongrand — November 4, 2009 @ 4:06 am
Poison gas is also effective; it is considered pesticide for human pests.
Why do raids when you can use Raid?
Comment by Michael Ejercito — November 4, 2009 @ 4:40 am
Do you have a quote for this, Bill?
Comment by Michael Ejercito — November 4, 2009 @ 4:44 am
Re: #31 http://urj.org/about/union/leadership/yoffie/archive/mmm/
If I am exaggerating, it is not by much. Yoffie has a very unique Torah or Talmud in his possession.
Comment by Bill Levinson — November 4, 2009 @ 6:39 am
In response to Bland, there is no such thing as extreme Islam! Islam IS EXTREME by its very nature! All this article is saying , is hate the haters!Have no mercy! Islam has made a CHOICE. I like to say,” They have made their bed, now they can die in it!” We didn’t choose to be aggressive, THEY DID! We must protect the land that Hashem endowed to us! Again, as a lesson my dad taught me, it is better to be respected than liked! It is not a question of hate, but one of survival. If we don’t,”hate the murderers and killers, how is it going to end? We have had a plethora of horrible leadership in modern day Israel since its inception. Yamit knows the Torah, and I believe he doesn’t want to feel this way. But how can you not? When us, Jews are being attacked again and again. Bland, I recommend you read Leon Uris’s, “The Hag.” I read it at summer camp in 1988 when I turned 22. It is as true today as when I read it. Israpundit is mostly academic, however from certain posters, Yamit Samuel Fistel, Laura, Sarah-Sue, I can feel a great sense of Jewish identity and toughness!I am this way. I believe not in the stereotypical,”rich-spoiled, non -Torah observant Jew which dominates the elite of the US and Israeli politics, but of the Jews who live on the front line in Sderot and Ashkelon. They are the front line defenders of our faith. It was totally disgraceful that we as Jews, kicked out the people of the tribe in Gush Katif! They are facing such hardship now. We deserve a better fate. Let me tell you of a story when I first came to the Eretz. The Year was 1983 and I was pushing 17. Myself and a few American Jews were crossing a street in Jerusalem after an outing at Champs pub. The Americans chose to cross the street and were whisked by, by an Israeli driver. They raised their middle finger,”the bird” towards him and he abruptly stopped. He got out of his car and yelled at the Americans. After they yelled back in disrespect, he slapped one of them. I never felt so proud to be Jewish at this point. This man was tough and took, pardon the expression,”NO SHIT!.” This is what we need.
Comment by tov — November 4, 2009 @ 1:34 pm
Today that same driver would have pulled a knife and stabbed your friend, if he was lucky.
Comment by yamit82 — November 4, 2009 @ 5:32 pm
Oh, and by the way, I truly believe the author of this article would’ve been the best choice for pm.
Comment by tov — November 4, 2009 @ 10:03 pm
And yet, that punk Yoffie has no problems with the government and its agents using those idols.
Comment by Michael Ejercito — November 5, 2009 @ 9:11 pm