Showing posts with label Jewish Fundamentalism. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Jewish Fundamentalism. Show all posts

Tuesday, August 21, 2007

Do not be silent!

I just finished watching the first episode of CNN's G-d's Warriors, dealing with Jewish settlers in Judea and Samaria. The facts are presented in such a way that you would think that the Jews are just as responsible for the conflict as the Muslims. The few Jewish terror attacks, which are disgraces on the Torah and a chilul Hashem, are made to seem just as frequent as the Arab jihadist attacks. The entire premise of the series is the moral equivalency between extreme Judaism, Christianity and Islam. (Robert Spencer's new book blows this myth of moral equivalency apart)
Anyways, its late at night and I don't feel like going over why this idea is naive and misguided. The show got me so worked up so I just feel like I need to post something. I think I will just trust G-d - He has a plan and will not abandon Israel.

A psalm, a song of Asaph. O God, have no silence, do not be silent and do not be still, O God. For behold, Your enemies stir, and those who hate You raise their heads. Against Your people they plot cunningly, and they take counsel against Your protected ones. They said, "Come, let us destroy them from [being] a nation, and the name of Israel will no longer be remembered." For they have taken counsel with one accord; against You they form a pact. The tents of Edom and the Ishmaelites, Moab and the Hagrites. Gebal, Ammon, and Amalek, Philistia with the inhabitants of Tyre. Also Assyria joined them; they were the arm of the children of Lot forever. Do to them as [to] Midian; as [to] Sisera, as [to] Jabin in the brook Kishon. They were destroyed in En-Dor; they were [as] dung on the ground. Make them, their nobles, as Oreb and as Zeeb, and as Zebah and as Zalmuna all their princes, Who said, "Let us inherit for ourselves the dwellings of God." My God, make them like thistles, like stubble before the wind. As a fire that burns in a forest and as a flame that burns mountains. So will You pursue them with Your tempest, and with Your whirlwind You will terrify them. Fill their faces with shame, and they will seek Your countenance, O Lord. Let them be ashamed and terrified forever; let them be disgraced and perish. Let them know that You-Your name alone is the Lord, Most High over all the earth.
Hashem, destroy Your enemies and have mercy on Your Firstborn son, Israel. We have waited 2000 years of exile, Inquisition, pogroms, oppression, Holocaust and jihad. We are very, very tired. Bring us home. Send us the Moshiach now- 2000 years is a very long time.

Sunday, March 18, 2007

Confessions of a Jewish Fundamentalist

The other day, during an Internet discussion, I was accused of being a "fundamentalist jew", a "racist" and an "islamophobe". I'd like to take this opportunity to clarify my beliefs and opinions.
I am absolutely not a racist. I believe that all men are created equal. I believe in, as taught in the Torah, the common brotherhood of man and the common fatherhood of G-d. I do not hate anybody, especially Muslims. I would love nothing more than a flowering of human rights and democracy throughout the Muslim world, where they are severely lacking. I would gladly accept a fair peace proposal between Israel and the surrounding Arab states. It is in no way racist to criticize Islam as Islam is not a race but a religious and political ideology. Obviously not all Muslims are terrorists or support jihad. That, however, does not mean that Islam does not teach violence. This line of reasoning means that Judaism cannot teach respect and kindness as some Jews are mean and vindictive. Not all Muslims wage jihad just as not all Jews keep kosher.
Am I an islamophobe? What does that term even entail? As I have already said, I do not hate Muslims. A phobia means an irrational or baseless fear of something. A fear of Islam and jihad is nothing baseless or irrational; just ask Salman Rushdie or the danish cartoonists. Islam mean 'submission', thus islamophobia means 'fear of submission'. Yes, I say proudly, I am afraid of submission to sharia and hatred. I, as a Jew, am concerned, just as Christians, Hindus, Buddhists, women and gays should be. We cannot submit. We will fight and in 50 years, when some Eurabian scholar reads this, he will wonder how Western Civilization collectively commited national suicide in the face of barbarism. He will want to know how the civilization that has survived the Huns, the Black Plague and two World Wars simply gave up and accepted submission- 'dhimmitude'- from the Islamic menace.
I guess that I am a fundamentalist then. I fundamentally believe in the equality of all man. I believe fundamentally in the immutable and eternal spirit of the Torah and Jewish people. I fundamentally believe that freedom is Hashem's gift to mankind. I fundamentally believe in the divine right of the Nation of Israel to live freely in the Land of Israel according to the Torah of Israel.
I extend an olive branch to anyone who rejects hatred and embraces human rights and freedoms. I am a friend to any person, Jew, Christian or Muslim, who abandons violence and intolerance and works towards perfecting the world in the kingdom of the Almighty. May we merit the day when nations will not lift swords against one another; neither shall they learn war anymore. May the day when the lamb will ie with the wolf and all the world will accept the kingship of G-d come speedily in our lifetimes. Amen.