RUTHFULLY YOURS

““If someone comes to kill you, rise up and kill him first,” says the Talmud. [Babylonian Talmud, Tractate Sanhedrin, folio 72a.] That is the best response to mass murderers — in 1943, today and always.”

During World War II, 30,000 Jewish partisans fought in Eastern Europe, in their own combat units. In Western Europe, where anti-semitism among the conquered gentile population was less severe, Jews were able to participate as individuals in the national resistance, rather than having to fight in separate units. For example, in France, Jews amounted to less than one percent of French population, but comprised about 15 to 20 percent of the French Resistance. One of the most successful battles of the Jewish resistance was the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising. Nearly every Jew who participated was eventually killed — but they were going to be killed anyway. By choosing to stand and fight, the Warsaw Jews diverted a significant amount of Nazis resources from battlefields elsewhere, thus hastening the Nazi defeat.

The following is a based on my forthcoming book “The Morality of Self-Defense and Military Action: The Judeo-Christian Tradition,” which will be published in 2016 by Praeger.

Before the war, about 10 percent of Poland’s population was Jewish. In the Middle Ages, Poland had been a welcoming, tolerant and free nation, and many Jews emigrated there. But when Poland regained its independence in 1919, thanks to the Versailles Treaty, the nation degenerated into a military dictatorship which encouraged anti-semitism.

On October 3rd, 1965, President Lyndon Johnson signed into law the Immigration Act.

The 1965 Act did two big things, and a multitude of small ones.ustoadmit

The first big thing it did: abolish the old National-Origins quotas, established in 1921, revised in 1924 and 1929. The idea of the quotas was to maintain demographic stability by limiting settlement from any European country to some fixed percent of that country’s representation in a recent census.

The 1921 Act used the 1910 census as its benchmark. The 1924 Act used the 1890 census in order to reduce the quota numbers on South and East Europeans, who it was thought did not make as good citizens as north and west Europeans. The 1929 revision went to the 1920 census.

To present-day sensibilities it all sounds very horrible: “Whaddya mean, an Italian or a Pole doesn’t make as good a citizen as a German or Irishman? Whoa!”

But that was then and this is now. And personally, I decline to join in the screaming and fainting. I take the old-fashioned view that a nation has the right to admit for settlement whomever it pleases, on any grounds at all, rational or otherwise. It’s up to the people of that nation and their legislators to say who they want to settle. It’s not up to foreigners.

If, when I applied for U.S. citizenship in 2001, the immigration authorities had said: “Sorry, pal, we don’t like the look of your teeth, and we have enough Brits anyway,” it would not have occurred to me that I had any grounds for complaint. I might have wheedled and pleaded a bit—”Come on, just one more won’t hurt, and I’ll find an orthodontist, I promise”— but if they’d sent me back to Blighty at last I would have understood. This country belongs to Americans. It’s for them and their legislators to say who they want joining them.

The newspaper settles the ‘explosive historical question that cuts to the essence of competing claims to what may be the world’s most contested piece of real estate’

Was the White House ever in Washington, D.C.? Can we ever really know for sure? Not unless we dig under the existing structure and find indisputable archaeological evidence of the original structure, which British general Robert Ross is said—by some sources—to have torched in August, 1814.

If you find everything about the previous paragraph patently ridiculous, you are clearly not a reporter or an editor for The New York Times. This morning, the paper of record published a piece about Jerusalem’s Temple Mount , questioning whether or not it was the site of, you know, the Jewish Temple. “Historical Certainty,” the article’s headline reads, “Proves Elusive at Jerusalem’s Holiest Place.” Capping the piece is a quote from Jane Cahill, who the paper notes is not only an archaeologist but also a practicing lawyer and therefore, presumably, an expert on incontrovertible evidence. Did the ancient Jewish temple stand where the Dome of the Rock now stands? “The answer might be ‘yes,’ if the standard of proof is merely a preponderance of the evidence,” Cahill is quoted as saying, “but ‘no’ if the standard of proof is beyond a reasonable doubt.”

http://www.algemeiner.com/2015/10/09/new-york-times-gives-credence-to-muslim-claims-of-no-jewish-temples-ever-on-temple-mount/ The New York Times is now “evenhanded” about historical facts. Maybe Jewish history that has been continuously accepted for thousands of years and supported by overwhelming evidence is right, maybe the Muslims who are trying to destroy all evidence of Jewish history for political purposes are right. It is a mystery: Historical Certainty Proves […]

BERLIN – The alleged “honor killing” last month of a young pregnant woman who fled Syria after being gang raped is the latest case to leave Germans horrified by the crimes and customs of some of the refugees pouring in from the war-torn Middle East.
The woman, identified only as Rokstan M., fled Syria in 2011 after being gang-raped by Syrian soldiers and found work as an interpreter. After authorities in the small, eastern city of Dessau discovered her body, stabbed and buried behind a housing complex for Syrian refugees Friday, suspicion has focused on her father and brothers, who prosecutors believe may have killed her because the gang rape left her “unclean.”

“Do you realize what you have done?” — Vladimir Putin, President of Russia

Everywhere that U.S. leadership helped Islamic jihadis topple secular autocrats in the name of “democracy and freedom,” indigenous Christian minorities are forced either to convert to Islam or die.

Many are accepting death.

Most recently, on August 28 near Aleppo, the Islamic State (IS or ISIS) tortured, mutilated, publicly raped, beheaded and crucified 12 Christians for saying they “would never renounce Christ” for Muhammad.

The jihadis took one group in front of a large crowd. They cut off the fingertips of a 12-year-old boy, who steadfastly refused to submit to Islam. They “severely beat him, telling his father they would stop the torture only if he, the father, returned to Islam.” He refused, so they “also tortured and beat him and the two other ministry workers. The three men and the boy then met their deaths in crucifixion.”

There is a discussion going on in Israel about whether the current wave of terrorism can be called the “third intifada,” as the Palestinians are dubbing it. Not a TV panel goes by without this question being raised.
One analyst referred to it on Thursday evening, following a day of stabbing attacks in different locations across Israel, as the “lone-wolf intifada.” Though this was said tongue-in-cheek, the oxymoron best describes the current situation.
The reason the steep surge in up-close-and-personal Palestinian violence seems to require a definition by the political echelon and military brass is because if it is an actual intifada, there is a leader or entity behind it pulling the strings, planning the operations and supplying the weapons.
In this case, however, the “command center” is virtual; it is located in cyberspace, where social media rules, not in a specific compound in Gaza or Ramallah.
Prime Minister Netanyahu is right to blame Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas for the atmosphere of anti-Semitism created by the systematic incitement of his people against Israel and Jews. Indeed, even as Abbas says that he is not interested in an escalation of violence, he continues to accuse Israel of preventing Muslims and Christians from praying on the Temple Mount.
Using lies about Judaism’s holiest site as an excuse to kill Jews is not a novel idea. In fact, it is a tried and true method for uniting Arabs around the world against the Jewish state. It is among the very few issues on which the otherwise disparate groups vying for power agree.
The beauty of this particular propaganda tool is that it enables Palestinians and Israeli Arabs to experience unity of purpose and a brotherhood of blood. As such, it enables sympathizers or members of Hamas, Islamic Jihad, Fatah and other factions to shed their internal strife and band together on Facebook and Twitter to schedule riots and give one another tips on effective “resistance” and “martyrdom.”
It is amazing how they grasp that their best ammunition — other than rocks, blocks and kitchen knives — is Israeli helplessness in the face of a pubescent enemy. They realize that dead Palestinian teenagers do more for their cause than tanks and machine guns. Not only do media outlets, such as the BBC and The New York Times, immediately turn the Arab perpetrators into victims, but the United Nations condemns Israel, Europe justifies its boycotting of Israeli products, and the White House darkens its already dim view of Jerusalem.
This is not new. As Netanyahu, Defense Minister Moshe Ya’alon, Internal Security Minister Gilad Erdan, Chief of IDF General Staff Gadi Eizenkot and acting Police Commissioner Benzi Sau pointed out in a joint press conference on Thursday night, Israel has been confronting Arab terrorism since its establishment. Basically, they all agreed that it’s a marathon, not a sprint, and the public has to be patient while the government and defense establishment emerge victorious from the current terror wave.

“The man who propagates this murderous lie and orchestrates the death and mayhem that is its bloody harvest is none other than the West’s favorite Palestinian moderate.”

All the Palestinian terrorist attacks that have been carried out in recent weeks share one common feature. All the terrorists believe that by attacking Jews they are protecting the Temple Mount from destruction.

And why shouldn’t they believe this obscenity? Everywhere they go, every time they turn on their televisions, read the paper, go to school or the mosque they are told that the Jews are destroying al-Aksa Mosque. Al-Aksa, they are told, is in danger. They must take up arms to defend it from the Jews, whatever the cost.

One man stands at the center of this blood libel. The man who propagates this murderous lie and orchestrates the death and mayhem that is its bloody harvest is none other than the West’s favorite Palestinian moderate: PLO chief and Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas.

On September 16 Abbas gave a speech. It was broadcast on PA television and posted on his Facebook page. In it, he incited the Palestinians to kill Jews. In his words, “Al-Aksa Mosque is ours.

They [the Jews] have no right to desecrate it with their filthy feet. We won’t allow them to do so and we will do everything in our power to defend Jerusalem.”

The Islamist genocide — and there can be no doubt that it is genocide, despite world silence – of the Christians, Yazidis, Mandeans, and other defenseless ethno-religious minorities of Syria and Iraq continues. The killing of these peoples is deliberate and brutal and is rooted in religious hatred of the “infidel.” It is meted out in sudden violent executions, mass deportations, and the gradual, methodical destruction of their civilizations.

Washington is blind to this genocide that occurs alongside, but is separate from, a sectarian Muslim power struggle. It has failed to defend them militarily. Now it is failing to provide humanitarian help in the only manner left: resettling the survivors out of harm’s way, in countries where they will be able to rebuild their families and preserve their unique ancient cultures without fear. Rescue is the very minimum we can do to help these victims of genocide.

Yesterday, we learned that three Christians captured from Assyrian villages in Syria last February were executed by ISIS on September 23 in a desert area, somewhere in the “Caliphate,” and that possibly hundreds of other murders will follow. After the jihadist’ demands for $10 million in ransom money were not met, the three Christian men was murdered with a single shot to the back of each head as they were lined up, on their knees, garbed in orange jumpsuits. In its video of this execution, ISIS threatens to kill the 202 remaining Christian hostages from the February raid. It is probably not a coincidence that September 23 was the Muslim commemoration of the “Feast of Sacrifice” (Eid al-Adha).

Vienna, Austria — Lucy Balmanian’s life straddles the crisis overtaking Europe today. Born in Syria, she’s an Armenian Christian who has lived in Vienna for years, speaking impeccable English. So when she watches Austria grapple with the massive influx of foreigners fleeing war and bad economies, she shares both Syria’s pain and Europe’s concerns.

Sitting in an upscale café in Vienna’s First District, Balmanian recalls the last time she visited Damascus, in 2010. “Nobody would imagine that their lives would change so much,” she says, describing how she then felt safe and optimistic about Syria’s future. “Now, Syria is back 100 years. It will be very hard to fix everything, because not only is Syria broken; Syrians’ spirits are broken. . . . Everyone there is faced with this decision: Do we leave, or do we stay and risk losing family members? It is a jump into the void.”

That jump has also left the European Union in a state of limbo. So far this year, more than 522,000 foreigners crossed into Europe by the Mediterranean Sea alone, the majority landing in Italy and Greece, according to the September 29 count by International Organization for Migration. An additional 2,892 perished attempting the voyage.