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There Is No Compromise in a Religious War
Golda Meir. Photo: Wiki Commons.
JNS.org – Golda Meir is reputed to have said of Israel’s enemies, “They say we must be dead. And we say we want to be alive. Between life and death, I don’t know of a compromise.”
As is often said, Israelis live in the Middle East, not the Middle West. No matter what Israel’s enemies say or do, this reality does not penetrate the minds of people who live in different neighborhoods. Instead, politicians speak dreamily of ceasefire agreements, a Palestinian state and normalization with Saudi Arabia.
The root of the conflict is not the so-called “occupation.” When Jordan oversaw the West Bank for 19 years and Egypt controlled Gaza, no one demanded a new Palestinian state. The clamor against “occupation” surfaced only after Israel took control of these territories in self-defense. On Oct. 7, Hamas attacked from Gaza, an area Israel vacated 18 years ago. Israel doesn’t occupy Lebanon, Iraq, Yemen or Iran, and yet it is being attacked by all those countries.
The issue has never been Palestinian self-determination. Arab states invaded Israel in 1948 to carve it up among themselves, not create a Palestinian state. The Palestinians rejected offers of statehood in 1937, 1939, 1947, 1979 (autonomy that would have led to statehood), literally blew up the 1993 Oslo Accords with terrorism and turned down independence provided by the Clinton, Olmert and Trump Mideast peace plans.
What fuels this ongoing conflict is not a fight for Palestinian self-determination but the refusal of Islamist forces to accept a Jewish state in their midst. Most policymakers and pundits can’t process this idea, and students don’t want to believe in religious wars.
At root, religion has always been the basis of the intolerance of Jews in the Middle East. They were, at best, treated as second-class citizens (dhimmis) in Muslim countries before being expelled or forced to flee. In Palestine, the Mufti of Jerusalem incited riots against the Jews two decades before the creation of Israel, demonstrating that anti-Jewish animosity is a cornerstone of the conflict.
Peace cannot be achieved through land or ceasefire agreements since Muslim extremists do not believe that Jews can live on any part of Islamic land. The two-state crowd ignores the Palestinians when they say a Palestinian state would have to be Judenrein, the only place in the world where Jews would not be permitted to live.
Israel’s enemies make their intentions plain, but the world looks the other way. Western leaders argue that Hamas is not just an organization but an “idea,” suggesting that Israel cannot defeat it militarily. If that is true, then how can peace ever be made with an “idea” that calls for the annihilation of Jews?
For those not convinced that Oct. 7 was only one part of the Hamas agenda, I refer you to the group’s charter, which states plainly: “Our struggle against the Jews is very great and very serious. … The Islamic Resistance Movement is but one squadron that should be supported … until the enemy is vanquished and Allah’s victory is realized. It strives to raise the banner of Allah over every inch of Palestine … [emphasis added].
Because Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu wisely ignored US President Joe Biden’s pressure to stay out of Rafah, where Israel knew Yahya Sinwar was hiding, the Israel Defense Forces eliminated one head of the Hamas Hydra. Still, it will regrow and ensure that even after its military capability is demolished, terrorism will continue. Hence the idea that Israel should turn over Gaza to West Bank Palestinians who insist that Hamas be part of the government is a nonstarter.
Israel has cut off several of the Hezbollah Hydra’s heads, but it will grow another and another. Hezbollah will remain a danger until the Iranian regime is overthrown and Lebanon is returned to the Lebanese without the domination of Hezbollah. And here’s a reminder of the Hezbollah “idea” that will live on as expressed by Hassan Nasrallah: “If we searched the entire world for a person, more cowardly, despicable, weak and feeble in psyche, mind, ideology and religion, we would not find anyone like the Jew. Notice, I do not say the Israeli.” To reinforce the point that the war is not about land, occupation or Palestinian suffering, Nasrallah expressed hope that Diaspora Jews would all make aliyah. “If they all gather in Israel, it will save us the trouble of going after them worldwide.”
War is hell, but it is also sometimes necessary. What is the alternative when the Iranian regime has surrounded Israel with an “axis of resistance,” attacks it with ballistic missiles and is developing nuclear weapons to incinerate it? Iran’s Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei said, “The Zionist regime is a deadly, cancerous growth” that “will undoubtedly be uprooted and destroyed.” Like the antisemites on American campuses, he says he has nothing against Jews, just Zionists, who he says “have always been a plague, even before establishing the fraudulent Zionist regime.” According to Khamenei, “elimination of the State of Israel does not mean the elimination of the Jewish people,” even though 75% of the population are Jews.
We’re told peace is possible with the secular “moderates” in the West Bank like Palestinian Authority head Mahmoud Abbas, who, along with other P.A. officials, praised the Hamas massacre, boasted that some of their fighters participated in the slaughter and eulogized Sinwar as “a great national leader.”
PLO chief Yasser Arafat once declared: “We know only one word: jihad, jihad, jihad. … And we are now entering the phase of the great jihad prior to the establishment of an independent Palestinian state whose capital is Jerusalem.” The former speaker of the Palestinian Legislative Council, Ahmad Bahar, said, “Make us victorious over the infidel people. … Allah, take hold of the Jews and their allies, Allah, take hold of the Americans and their allies … Allah, count them and kill them to the last one and don’t leave even one.”
Fatah, led by Holocaust denier Abbas, has a military wing that posts remarks such as, “To all our sons and brothers in the Palestinian Security Forces throughout the West Bank—today is your day. Break into the settlements, strike the sons of apes of pigs, kill everyone who is a settler, slaughter everyone who is Israeli, by Allah, they are the most cowardly among men. Today is a tiding of days of victory, Allah willing—for this is jihad, jihad, victory or martyrdom.”
Look at any P.A. map or the logos of the terrorist organizations to see that the “solution” is not two states but one called Palestine replacing Israel. To advance its cause, the P.A. incentivizes the murder of Jews through its “pay-for-slay” policy of paying the families of suicide bombers and terrorists in Israeli prisons.
The former head of the Shin Bet astonishingly wrote: “Winning on the battlefield does not bring us closer to winning the war—unless we defeat Hamas’s ideology by creating a better political horizon.”
Others, including Biden, have expressed similar nonsense. The Palestinians were repeatedly offered and rejected a horizon for independence precisely because they share the Islamist ideology. Oslo was the best proof as the Palestinians were given a five-year horizon for statehood and killed it by incessant terror. Arafat’s reaction to the prospect offered by Clinton was to start the Second Intifada, which lasted from 2000 to 2005.
Make no mistake, if given the opportunity, the Palestinians and the jihadists in Iran and Hezbollah would kill every Jew if given the chance.
Despite the best efforts of the Biden administration, the Europeans and the United Nations, to spare everyone but the Jews, Israelis stubbornly insist on living and not compromising with those who unapologetically seek its destruction.
As Israelis remind the world, their fight is not only for survival—it is a fight for the West, for the defense of civilization against a barbaric ideology that seeks nothing less than the destruction of the Jewish people.
Americans are in the same fight but dislike talking about it. We are fighting ISIS, Al-Qaeda and other Islamist terrorists, even at the cost of civilian lives. Israelis are told they are creating more terrorists, but Americans have never hesitated to kill terrorists out of such concern. And while some are telling Israel to “take the win” after eliminating Sinwar, no one proposed that the United States stop the war on terror after Osama bin Laden was dispatched.
There is hope, however distant it may seem.
I am reminded of the British adviser who told a Zionist official the Jews should never have allowed the United Nations to decide their fate in 1947 because the only way they’d get a state was if the United States and the Soviet Union agreed. That would never happen, he said.
He was wrong.
For the next 30 years, Middle East experts said the Arabs will never make peace. Then, Egyptian President Anwar Sadat broke the psychological barrier by going to Jerusalem in 1977 and signing a treaty with Israel two years later. It took 15 more years before King Hussein of Jordan showed the same courage. Another 25 years passed before the Abraham Accords were signed and another four Muslim Arab states normalized relations with Israel.
Perhaps, one day, a new generation of Palestinians will see that their future lies in coexistence, not jihad. But that day will only come after Israel’s enemies and their hateful ideologies are defeated, just as Nazism and communism were.
The post There Is No Compromise in a Religious War first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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AOC Compares Israel-Hamas War to Vietnam, Says Conflict Has Been ‘Generationally Radicalizing’
US Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY). Photo: Mike Jourdan/Flickr.
During an interview on left-wing internet talk show The Majority Report, Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (AOC) agreed that the ongoing conflict in Gaza is comparable to the Vietnam War, arguing that America’s strident support of Israel has radicalized younger Americans.
While interviewing AOC, The Majority Report host Sam Seder argued that the Israel-Hamas war is “akin” to the Vietnam War. Seder suggested that “alternative media” such as TikTok, Youtube, or podcasts, have presented a harshly critical view of Israel’s conduct in Gaza, resulting in a wide-scale radicalization of young people against the Jewish state.
“If you’re under the age of 40 what’s gone on in Israel is in Palestine and Gaza in particular obviously and the West Bank for that matter is very different from your perception if you’re over the age of 40 because of where you get your media,” Seder said.
AOC agreed, saying that she has “said this directly to Democratic leadership” and “ communicated this to the White House.”
“This is our Vietnam. This is our, not just like in terms of the party, but this is just our country’s Vietnam. And what I think a lot of people do not yet understand, is they think that some of these hemorrhages are maybe ideological. They think maybe it is like an ethnic thing. I don’t think there is appreciation yet about how generationally radicalizing yeah this moment is, and how shocked people are at how far just like the general inertia is willing to go, as if we’re not seeing what’s happening right before our very eyes.”
AOC continued, labelling the Israel-Hamas war a “genocide” and arguing that the Democratic party needs to undermine Israel’s defense efforts if it aims to energize young voters and “reinstate an order around human rights.”
Israel says it has gone to unprecedented lengths to try and avoid civilian casualties in Gaza, noting its efforts to evacuate areas before it targets them and to warn residents of impending military operations with leaflets, text messages, and other forms of communication. However, Hamas, which rules Gaza, has in many cases prevented people from leaving, according to the Israeli military.
Another challenge for Israel has been Hamas’s widely recognized military strategy of embedding its terrorists within Gaza’s civilian population and commandeering civilian facilities like hospitals, schools, and mosques to run operations and direct attacks.
Over the past year, AOC has repeatedly condemned the Jewish state’s response to the Hamas terrorist group’s brutal Oct. 7 slaughter of roughly 1200 people throughout southern Israel. AOC, a strident critic of Israel, has accused the Jewish state of committing a “genocide” and “ethnic cleansing” in Gaza. She has spearheaded calls for a “ceasefire” between Israel and Hamas. The progressive firebrand has also urged the Biden administration to implement an “arms embargo” against Israel.
The post AOC Compares Israel-Hamas War to Vietnam, Says Conflict Has Been ‘Generationally Radicalizing’ first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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Obituary: Stanley Diamond, 91, was a Montreal businessman-turned-genealogist whose research changed lives
Stanley Mark Diamond founded Jewish Records Indexing – Poland, the world’s largest special interest genealogy group. JRI – Poland was a “second act” in his life, combining his passion for Jewish continuity with his expertise as a Montreal business leader with a Harvard MBA.
Diamond died in Montreal on Dec.18. He was 91.
JRI – Poland grew over 30 years to approximately 170 volunteers on six continents around the world and amassed a database that now has 6.4 million records reflecting the lives of Polish Jews since the 1500s.
“Stanley had a two-fold superpower,” acting JRI – Poland executive director Robinn Magid says. “He was able to care about people and draw things out of them, but also to contribute and help. They go hand in handz but are not often found in the same person.”
In 1991, Diamond’s nephew was diagnosed as a carrier of beta thalassemia, and he created a family tree to alert relatives about their probability of having the gene. At the time, he was doing consulting work after selling his decorative ceiling business, Intalite, in 1986.
He began attending genealogy conferences and realized that the largest group of Jewish genealogists were Jews who traced their roots to the current or former country of Poland. In 1995, he partnered with two technology experts who had the skills to develop a website that could also incorporate archival information. Several months later, Diamond travelled to Poland with a colleague and persuaded the Polish State Archives to allow JRI – Poland to index his family’s ancestral town’s records. Just four months later, he returned to Poland with a printout of 40,000 entries, to the astonishment of the archives’ director, who then understood the value of the project.
Diamond hoped JRI – Poland would help people capture the essence of their ancestors. In addition to preserving their names, he wanted families to learn about their lives and about their values.
“JRI – Poland specializes in solving puzzles,” says Magid.
While some of these puzzles solve simple questions about basic family history, others are much more complex. The group has helped save lives by sharing information on hereditary health conditions. They have been able to repair damage caused by the Holocaust, connecting and reconnecting fragmented families who lost each other or did not know they even existed. They have assisted people who wanted to prove that they were Jewish and were entitled to an Orthodox Jewish wedding.
The group also assists Jews at risk. “Three years ago, when Putin invaded Ukraine, we saw an upswing in people writing us from Ukraine, Belarus, Russia, Poland and other places saying they needed to prove their Polish-Jewish heritage,” says Magid. “In the past we’ve had people from Venezuela and from various South American countries like Argentina. They are in countries that have gone through turmoil and feel at risk. They are either trying to prove their halachic Jewish heritage and move to Israel, or they are trying to prove their Polish-Jewish heritage to get a Polish passport and move to the European Union. These are the people who Stanley personally helped.”
Diamond also provided his research expertise for the television series Finding your Roots and Who Do You Think You Are?, and in 2016 located documentation for the Guinness organization that verified that Israeli Holocaust survivor Yisrael Kristal was the world’s oldest living man at age 112.
Diamond was born in Montreal to Harry and Annie Diamond. He attended West Hill High School and McGill, and graduated from Harvard Business School in 1958. He was an exceptional baseball player, playing in a semi-pro league. He met his wife, Ruth Peerlkamp, at a party, and they were married for 59 years.
“Stanley Diamond’s first passion was for his family, but that soon spread to your families,” daughter Jessika said in her eulogy. “He loved doing for others, advising other genealogists, teaching, speaking out on the importance of genetic testing, reuniting families separated in the Holocaust, finding lost heirs and potential bone marrow matches.”
In 2021, Yad Vashem granted JRI – Poland third-party access to their Pages of Testimony. Diamond advocated for the organization to support amateur genealogists who could provide hard data, and they agreed for the first time.
“He was passionate about his work and personally devoted to helping anyone who asked for assistance,” his daughter Rachel said. “He was president of the Jewish Genealogical Society of Montreal, and he was honored by the governor general of Canada with the Meritorious Service Medal. He considered it to be the crowning achievement of his second career. He had a huge footprint that will be felt for a very long time.”
“It’s hard to imagine doing our jobs without Stanley Diamond advocating and referring and providing knowledge in the background of what we do for people,” said Janice Rosen, director of the Alex Dworkin Canadian Jewish Archives. “He was the go-to person in so many ways. The European side, the Canadian side. He was so determined to ferret out information to help people. He was involved in so many aspects of genealogy which grew out of his need to know about his own genetic background, and he made the whole world benefit from it.”
“We say people were lifetime learners. But more importantly, he was a lifetime contributor. And I don’t think we say that about many people,” said Magid. “He wanted to make a difference because he could envision something and get the right people to do it. And that is unique. He understood that we are part of a chain of continuity of the Jewish people.”
Diamond is survived by his wife, Ruth, daughters Paula, Rachel and Jessika, and his grandchildren.
The post Obituary: Stanley Diamond, 91, was a Montreal businessman-turned-genealogist whose research changed lives appeared first on The Canadian Jewish News.
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Dutch Court Blasted for ‘Woefully Insufficient’ Sentencing of Men Who Attacked Israeli Soccer Fans in Amsterdam
Israeli soccer fans under assault, near Amsterdam Central station, in Amsterdam, Netherlands, Nov. 8, 2024, in this still image obtained from a social media video. X/iAnnet/via REUTERS
A district court in Amsterdam sentenced five men on Tuesday for participating in violent attacks against Israeli soccer fans in the Dutch city last month, imposing punishments that were roundly criticized as inadequate by many pro-Israel supporters.
The five suspects were sentenced to community service and up to six months in jail for violent public assault, which included kicking fans of the Israeli soccer team Maccabi Tel Aviv before and after the team’s match against their Dutch rivals Ajax and inciting the premeditated and coordinated violence that took place on Nov. 7.
A man identified as Sefa O was given the longest sentence — six months in prison for public violence against several people, minus the time he has already been held in custody. Prosecutors argued that he had a “leading role” in the violence that ensued. In court earlier this month, images were shown of a man identified as Sefa O kicking a person on the ground, chasing fans of Maccabi Tel Aviv in the streets of Amsterdam, and punching people in the head and the body.
A man identified as Umutcan A was sentenced to one month in jail, and Rachid O, who shared messages in the Whatsapp group chat that incited the violence, was sentenced to 10 weeks in jail. Karavan S was given one month for the same offense. Nineteen-year-old Lucas D — the only one of the five men to appear in court for the sentencing on Tuesday — was tried under juvenile law and ordered to complete 100 hours of community service, minus his pre-trial detention. The young man helped incite violence by participating in chat conversations that called for people to gather and attack Maccabi Tel Aviv fans, according to the court, which added that he also sent discriminatory messages in the chat group.
The five men were given sentences that were much less than what prosecutors demanded. The court defended its ruling by saying that community service is typically ordered for such crimes and for first time criminal offenders, which some of the suspects are, but “given the seriousness of the facts and the context in which they took place, the court is of the opinion that a prison sentence is the only appropriate punishment.” However, many have argued that the sentencing is not severe enough.
“Seriously Amsterdam? 6 months maximum prison, while excusing their pogromist actions? Shame on you,” Arsen Ostrovsky, a leading human rights attorney and CEO of The International Legal Forum, said in a post on X. “No wonder Jew-hatred and Islamic extremism is out of control in the Netherlands!”
Tal-Or Cohen, the founder and CEO of CyberWell, a technology company that monitors antisemitism and Holocaust denial on social media, called the sentencing on Tuesday “a shameful slap on the wrist and CYA [cover your ass] by Dutch authorities.”
“One of the leaders of the Amsterdam pogrom ‘possessed illegal fireworks with the power of a hand grenade,’ – But according to Dutch prosecutors no need to pursue charges for terrorism,” she noted, citing a Dutch report about the violence. “What if the leaders of the ‘Jew-Hunt’ brought their grenade to a Christmas market in Amsterdam?”
The Center for Information and Documentation on Israel (CIDI) described the severity of the sentencing as “disappointing” on its website. In a post on X, it further called the punishment “regrettable” since it was much less than what prosecutors had hoped for. “Nevertheless,” the group said, “it is good that prison sentences were imposed and that community service alone was not enough.”
“This shows that the legal order is also shocked. There was no justification for the actions of that night,” the CIDI added. “With this verdict, we as a society draw a clear line that this is not acceptable and that we do not accept this violence. We hope that other suspects will soon be arrested and that prosecutions can be initiated with the same speed.”
Others on X called the sentencing “woefully insufficient,” a “joke,” and a “disgrace.”
“This was an opportunity to show that antisemitism comes with a price. A 6 month jail sentence does not serve as a deterrent,” said one social media user.
After a soccer match between Maccabi Tel Aviv and Ajax on the night of Nov. 7, Israeli soccer fans were attacked in the streets by assailants who physically assaulted them, ran them over by cars, chased them with knives and sticks, and forced them to say “Free Palestine” to avoid further harm. Chief prosecutor René de Beukelaer said “several dozen” people were attacked. The violence continued into the early hours of Nov. 8 and five Maccabi Tel Aviv fans were hospitalized for injuries sustained during the attack that has been described as a “pogrom.” Amsterdam Mayor Femke Halsema called the attackers “antisemitic hit-and-run squads” who went “Jew hunting.”
Seven people appeared in court earlier this month in connection to the violence, but two of the cases have been delayed. The defense in one case requested a later date, to have more time to prepare evidence, and the second case, involving a Palestinian refugee accused of “attempted manslaughter,” is pushed back as the court awaits the results of a psychiatric evaluation, according to AFP. A total of 62 people were arrested on the day of the soccer match in relation to the violence, but most were released shortly afterward, the news outlet noted. Dutch police have already identified at least 45 suspects and are trying to identify more.
The prosecutor previously said that the violence last month “had little to do” with soccer. “In this case, there was no evidence of … a terrorist intent and the violence was not motivated by antisemitic sentiment,” he claimed. “The violence was influenced by the situation in Gaza, not by antisemitism.”
More than 47 people who were attacked during the violence in Amsterdam have obtained legal counsel from The Lawfare Project, which is helping the victims review legal options after also assisting them in securing local counsel in Amsterdam.
The post Dutch Court Blasted for ‘Woefully Insufficient’ Sentencing of Men Who Attacked Israeli Soccer Fans in Amsterdam first appeared on Algemeiner.com.