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| Home Front: Culture Wars |
| The End of the Jewish World as We Know It |
| 2018-10-05 |
| [American Thinker] Rabbi Lord Jonathan Saks has stated that the ultimate basis of Jewish peoplehood throughout history has been "Kol Yisrael arevim zeh bazeh" ‐ "All Jews are responsible for one another." We may not agree on anything, but we remain a single extended family. If you disagree with a friend, tomorrow he may no longer be your friend. But if you disagree with a family member, tomorrow he is still part of your family. Being a family is what keeps us together. We don't need to agree with each other, but we do need to care about each other. This historical connection among Jews has come to an abrupt end. It can no longer be ignored or denied. American Jews from the Democratic, progressive side of the political map not only have transformed themselves into a vanguard dedicated to publicly criticizing Israel, but act as if Israel is a flawed democracy unworthy of their support. This monumental shake-up and self-inflicted division of the Jewish world has been building up, changing the foundation of the Jewish world we have been accustomed to for the past 150 years. Not since the period of European enlightenment leading to the establishment of the Reform movement and secular Judaism, and not even during the darkest days of the Holocaust, has the Jewish world undergone such a widespread and fundamental rethinking of what it means to be Jewish. With the establishment of the State of Israel and her metamorphosis within a relatively short period into a world leader in defense, technology, medicine, agriculture, water purification, and food production, allowing Israel to free herself from the shackles of dependence on the American Jewish community, the schism has only accelerated and is threatening the unity of the Jewish world. We see it everywhere today; led by self-hating Jews, appearing on mainstream and social media, adopting an anti-Israel narrative that not only rejects Israel's basic national right of self-defense, but simultaneously demands that Israel forfeit her right to exist as the nation-state of the Jewish people. Jewish intellectuals, liberal and progressive organizations, Reform rabbis, lay leaders, university faculty members, students, communities, and grassroots movements have all joined hands, using their Jewish identity and Jewish affiliation to represent themselves as a moral authority and amplify their rejection of the State of Israel while making alliances with BDS organizations, Islamic organizations, and anti-Israel movements throughout the world that specifically express their objective of ending the existence of Israel as the nation-state of the Jewish people. They express solidarity with the Palestinians and their efforts to delegitimize the Jewish State. |
| Posted by:Besoeker |
| #8 The Jews were handed expectations of a homeland and a Holy Temple, but in the end were persecuted and sold into slavery. Also known as "The First Democrat Administration" |
| Posted by: Frank G 2018-10-05 21:38 |
| #7 As described by the Jewish Virtual Library entry on the Bar Kochba Revolt, or the 3rd Jewish War, once crowned as emperor Hadrian started out positive toward the Jews, then reversed course: The Bar Kokhba revolt marked a time of high hopes followed by violent despair. The Jews were handed expectations of a homeland and a Holy Temple, but in the end were persecuted and sold into slavery. During the revolt itself, the Jews gained enormous amounts of land, only to be pushed back and crushed in the final battle of Bethar. When Hadrian first became the Roman emperor in 118 C.E., he was sympathetic to the Jews. He allowed them to return to Jerusalem and granted permission for the rebuilding of their Holy Temple. The Jews’ expectations rose as they made organizational and financial preparations to rebuild the temple. Hadrian quickly went back on his word, however, and requested that the site of the Temple be moved from its original location. He also began deporting Jews to North Africa. The Jews prepared to rebel until Rabbi Joshua ben Hananiah calmed them. The Jews then satisfied themselves with preparing secretly in case a rebellion would later become necessary. They built hideouts in caves and did shoddy work building weapons so that the Romans would reject the weapons and return them to the Jews. ...As long as Hadrian remained near Judea, the Jews stayed relatively quiet. When he left in 132, the Jews began their rebellion on a large scale. They seized towns and fortified them with walls and subterranean passages. Under the strong leadership of Shimon Bar-Kokhba, the Jews captured approximately 50 strongholds in Judea and 985 undefended towns and villages, including Jerusalem. Jews from other countries, and even some gentiles, volunteered to join their crusade. The Jews minted coins with slogans such as “The freedom of Israel” written in Hebrew. Hadrian dispatched General Publus Marcellus, governor of Syria, to help Rufus, but the Jews defeated both Roman leaders. The Jews then invaded the coastal region and the Romans began sea battles against them. It sounds like there would not have been a revolt had Hadrian not mismanaged the entire situation so incredibly badly, Snowy Thing, but the revolt was certainly not a figment of his imagination. Back in May, the Times of Israel reported another finding of coins struck by the rebels during that period. |
| Posted by: trailing wife 2018-10-05 21:21 |
| #6 TW, in my recent convalescence last year I found myself listening a lot to Mike Duncan's "History of Rome" podcast. The section on Hadrian suggested that he was mentally not all there, and that Hadrian basically put down a revolt that wasn't happening anywhere but in his head. Is that accurate? |
| Posted by: Thing From Snowy Mountain 2018-10-05 19:56 |
| #5 has the Jewish world undergone such a widespread and fundamental rethinking of what it means to be Jewish. In every generation there arises the anguished cry that we are divided and disappearing. Nowadays those same anti-Zionist, Progressive Jews are the ones who are reproducing at well below replacement rates, just like non-Jewish Progressives, while Zionists like Ivanka Trump are well above replacement. It seems to me that the last big adjustment to intra-Jewish connections within the larger world occurred with the conquest of Byzantium, floowed by the closing of east-west trade routes and the Crusades, the previous biggies being the disdain for the Jewish revolts against Rome by the diaspora population, and the return of a small Jewish population to the holy land from the Babylonian captivity with the permission of Cyrus of Persia. |
| Posted by: trailing wife 2018-10-05 13:38 |
| #4 Ah, the Old Testament is full of examples. |
| Posted by: Woodrow 2018-10-05 13:26 |
| #3 Well, there was that one fellow. Soros I believe his name was. |
| Posted by: Besoeker 2018-10-05 09:37 |
| #2 yes there have always been Jews who went to the other side the article should have made a quantitative point, i.e., that rather than the idiomatic anti Israel quack or the cultic anti Israel groups (e.g. Neturai Karta) you have what is essentially a mass movement |
| Posted by: lord garth 2018-10-05 09:12 |
| #1 That's bull. There were always Jews who worshiped at the feet of foreign gods. |
| Posted by: g(r)omgoru 2018-10-05 03:29 |