tiaray77

“It’s a wonder I haven’t abandoned all my ideals, they seem so absurd and impractical. Yet I cling to them because I still believe, in spite of everything, that people are truly good at heart.”- Anne Frank

Parashat Eikev

Deuteronomy 7:12 - 11:25

SUMMARY

In this Torah portion, Moses continues his speech to the Israelites. He tells them they will have to annihilate people who are not believers in God. Moses reminds them not to forget God’s commandments even after they enter the land of Israel, and that they must continue to fear God.

COMMENTARY

Moses reminds the Israelites that their accomplishments are not solely the result of their own efforts.

Remembering the Victims of the Patt Junction Bus Bombing

On this date in 2002, a Palestinian Arab terrorist blew himself up on a crowded Jerusalem bus, killing 19 people and wounding another 74.

The terrorist boarded the crowded 32a bus and detonated his suicide vest as the bus was passing the Patt Junction, a major junction in Jerusalem.

May the memories of the victims be a blessing:

Boaz Aluf, 54, of Jerusalem

Shani Avi-Zedek, 15, of Jerusalem

Leah Baruch, 59, of Jerusalem

Mendel Bereson, 72, of Jerusalem

Raphael Berger, 28, of Jerusalem

Michal Biazi, 24, of Jerusalem

Tatiana Braslavsky, 41, of Jerusalem

Galila Bugala, 11, of Jerusalem

Raisa Dikstein, 67, of Jerusalem

Dr. Moshe Gottlieb, 70, of Jerusalem

Baruch Gruani, 60, of Jerusalem

Orit Hayla, 21, of Jerusalem

Helena Ivan, 63, of Jerusalem

Iman Kabha, 26, of Barta'a

Shiri Negari, 21, of Jerusalem

Gila Nakav, 55, of Jerusalem

Yelena Plagov, 42, of Jerusalem

Liat Yagen, 24 of Jerusalem

Rahamim Zidkiyahu, 51, of Jerusalem

Just in case anyone is still wondering why so many French Jews have decided to give up on France and make Aliyah. One Vélodrome d'Hiver is one too many (if you don’t know this repulsive story, we suggest you look it up)

Vélodrome d'Hiver

The World Council of Churches is asking European diplomats to punish Israel with sanctions if it annexes West Bank lands. The request has triggered a heated debate in Christian circles.

The call to punish Israel came last month in a letter to EU foreign ministers from the Geneva headquarters of the council, an umbrella body established in 1948 that now has 350 member churches with about 500,000 followers among them. The Catholic Church is not a member.

If Israel annexes land, the letter said, “the EU must surely suspend the EU-Israel Association Agreement,” a reference to a 1995 contract that promotes trade between the bloc and the Jewish state. In addition, the EU should apply sanctions on Israel “at least commensurate with those adopted by the EU in response to Russia’s annexation of Crimea.

”The EU has blacklisted hundreds of Russian individuals and firms over alleged involvement in the Crimea annexation from 2014, subjecting them to entry bans and freezing of EU properties.

“The unilateral annexation of yet more of the territory that remains to Palestinians cannot lead to justice or to peace, but only to greater injustice,” the church body wrote.

Mira Awad, an Israeli-Arab singer and actress who represented Israel at the 2009 Eurovision Song Contest, criticized former Pink Floyd front-man Roger Waters Monday for the latter’s long-time support of the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement, saying that he should support dialogue between Palestinians and Israelis, according to an Algemeiner report. Awad’s criticism of Waters came during a podcast interview with the non-profit group Creative Community for Peace, an organization devoted to fighting against the BDS movement’s campaign to convince musicians and artists to engage in a cultural boycott of Israel.  

Last week many readers asked me to send the link the the BlackLivesMatter platform that defames and criminalizes Israel and calls for an end to US support for Israel. I responded with links to articles that were published in response to the publication of the BLM platform in 2016, noting that the platform linked to by those articles had been removed. A few of my readers contacted me in response and said that the website had moved and gave me the new link. Here is the link to the platform. The sections on Israel can be found under the “Invest-Divest” link. https://m4bl.org/policy-platforms/invest-divest/ After you’re on this link, download the document called “Cut Military Expenditures Brief.” Before I quote the precise passages in the paper that specifically discuss Israel, I want to note something newsworthy which has been largely overlooked to date. A few days ago, in response to the BLM calls to defund the police, Sen. Tom Cotton asked rhetorically whether their next demand would be to defund the U.S. military. The answer is that this is already their demand. Its in their platform. The brief, which opens by asserting, “America is an empire that uses war to expand territory and power,” calls for the defunding of 50% of the U.S. military budget. The specific passage is quoted below, because it is followed by a demand to end military support for Israel. It bears noting that BLM gained legitimacy after spurring rioting in Ferguson, MO in 2016 when then president Obama hosted them at the White House in February 2016. At the time, Obama lauded the group saying “They are much better organizers than I was when I was their age, and I am confident that they are going to take America to new heights.” The meeting lasted for four hours. Here is a link to one write-up of the meeting: https://www.theguardian.com/…/black-lives-matter-meet-presi…

Here are the excerpts from the BLM platform that relate to Israel:

From the opening section titled “What is the problem?”:

“The US military accounts for over 50 percent of discretionary federal funding, a total of 598.5 billion dollars spent annually…In addition, approximately 3 billion dollars in US aid is allocated to Israel, a state that practices systematic discrimination and has maintained a military occupation of Palestine for decades. Together with Egypt – Israel’s most important regional ally – this figure represents nearly 75 percent of all US aid dollars.”

“The US justifies and advances the global war on terror via its alliance with Israel and is complicit in the genocide taking place against the Palestinian people. The US requires Israel to use 75 percent of all the military aid it receives to buy US-made arms. Consequently, every year billions of dollars are funneled from US taxpayers to hundreds of arms corporations, who then wage lobbying campaigns pushing for even more foreign military aid. The results of this policy are twofold: it not only diverts much needed funding from domestic education and social programs, but it makes US citizens complicit in the abuses committed by the Israeli government. Israel is an apartheid state with over 50 laws on the books that sanction discrimination against the Palestinian people. Palestinian homes and land are routinely bulldozed to make way for illegal Israeli settlements. Israeli soldiers also regularly arrest and detain Palestinians as young as 4 years old without due process. Everyday, Palestinians are forced to walk through military checkpoints along the US-funded apartheid wall.”

The platform then lists a serious of goals its implementation will achieve, under a section titled, “What does this solution do?” Among its promised achievements:

“Cuts the US military budget by 50%, which will lead to the closure of over 800 US military bases [in] the US [and] around the world, the elimination of the sale of weaponry to violators of human rights, reduces the use and stockpiling of nuclear weapons and return all troops back from the current theaters of war.”

Among the Federal actions the platform calls for, the first is:

“Build invest/divest campaigns that ends US aid to Israel’s military industrial complex and any government with human rights violations.”

Among the State action the platform demands:

“Fight the expanding number of Anti-BDS bills being passed in states around the country. This type of legislation not only harms the movement to end the Israeli occupation of Palestine, but it is a threat to the constitutional right to free speech and protest.”

Its call for local action includes:

“Map out local infrastructure needs and pass resolutions calling for the necessary reinvestment and rebuilding efforts. Coordinate direct actions of solidarity with South Africa, Palestine, Columbia and liberation movements across the globe.”

It bears noting that one of the organizations cited as working on BLM policy is Adalah - The Legal Center for Arab Minority Rights in Israel. Another is The US Campaign to End the Occupation. Another is The American Friends Service Committee.

These are all groups that take leading roles in the anti-Semitic BDS campaigns in the US and worldwide which target Jewish Americans for sanction and ostracism for daring to support the Jewish state.

Remembering the Farhud: 

The Farhud was the Holocaust-era massacre committed by Arab nationalists, who were inspired by the Nazis. It took place over June 1 and June 2, 1941, in Baghdad, Iraq. Hundreds of innocent Jews were murdered, while thousands more were brutally injured. Jewish property was also pillaged during the Jewish holiday of Shavuot.Palestinian Arab leaders, including the Grand Mufti of Jerusalem, Haj Amin al-Husseini, were among the central instigators of the violence in Baghdad.

שבוע טוב