During 1945 there were up to one million Jews living in the Middle East and North Africa outside modern-day Israel— many living in communities dating back more than three millennia. Their mass-exodus in the 20th century occurred due to extreme antisemitism with the rise of Arab Nationalism.
DOWN WITH THE DICTATORSHIP IN IRAN
Neda Agha-Soltan was shot and killed by the Islamic Regime of Iran during the June 2009 protests in Tehran. Neda was killed while exercising her fundamental human rights. All she wanted was to support her friends and to advocate for freedom.
1,000,000 MIDDLE EASTERN JEWS
ETHNIC CLEANSING?
Martin Luther King Jr.
“Peace for Israel means security, and we must stand with all our might to protect its right to exist, its territorial integrity. I see Israel as one of the great outposts of democracy in the world, and a marvelous example of what can be done, how desert land can be transformed into an oasis of brotherhood and democracy. Peace for Israel means security and that security must be a reality.” -Martin Luther King, on March 25, 1968
FAVORITE QUOTES
"Along with the rise of Arab nationalism and Arab independence, life for Jews in Egypt and other Arab countries became intolerable. All this started happening years before Israel was established. Within a 20-year period starting in 1945, nearly a million Jews were forced out of Arab countries. Being Jewish was criminalized in Egypt in the late 1940s. Other Arab states such as Iraq, Libya, and Syria, passed similar laws. Jews began facing iron walls of discrimination and harassment by the authorities. Most of us were dispossessed. Our schools, homes, synagogues, businesses, farms, and hospitals, were all confiscated by Arab governments. Our rich, 3,000-year-old culture and heritage was decimated. No trial, no jury, no justice." -Joseph Wahed
“Let us all hope that the dark clouds of racial prejudice will soon pass away, and that in some not too distant tomorrow the radiant stars of love and brotherhood will shine over our great nation with all their scintillating beauty.” -Martin Luther King, Jr.
"My parents came from Iran and Tunisia, but nobody is going to give our property back to us. It's all been confiscated ... We have this little sandbox we call Israel. We give our hearts and lives to make it a proud country." -Kobi (Subliminal) Shimoni
"There are things in this world a man does well to carry to extremes." -Cyrano de Bergerac
"Am Israel Chai! / !עם ישראל חי"
"Peace for Israel means security, and we must stand with all our might to protect its right to exist, its territorial integrity." -Martin Luther King, Jr.
"Even though I'm not Jewish...Israel is one of the few causes I feel good about supporting." -Ray Charles
"The world is a dangerous place to live, not because of the people who are evil, but because of the people who didn't do anything about it." -Albert Einstein
"!כל הכבוד לצה"ל / Kol Ha'kavod Le'Tzahal!"
"Today, the Middle East is a cauldron of chaos and change. What is not known is that Jews lived in what are now Arab states for over 2,500 years. Their communities pre-date the rise of Islam 1,400 years ago in the 7th century. Jewish communities from North Africa to Iraq date from the Babylonian destruction of the first Jewish Temple in Jerusalem, 500 years before the birth of Christianity. All of this is long before the establishment of today’s Arab Muslim countries." -Natalie Zeituny
"I would remind you that extremism in the defense of liberty is no vice. And let me remind you also that moderation in the pursuit of justice is no virtue." -Barry Goldwater
"I know we are the 'chosen people' but, once in a while, can't you choose someone else?" -Tevye (Chaim Topol)
"And disgusted by the anti-Semitism of many Italians, of many Europeans, I am ashamed of this shame that dishonors my Country and Europe. At best, it is not a community of States, but a pit of Pontius Pilates. And even if all the inhabitants of this planet were to think otherwise, I would continue to think so." -Oriana Fallaci
"It is better to have an Israel the whole world hates than an Auschwitz the whole world loves." -Rabbi Meir Kahane
"Jerusalem has been our capital for 3000 years. We were here when your forefathers were drinking wine, burying their daughters alive, and worshiping idols." -Mordechai Kedar
"It has been our belief that the Jewish state must be, and indeed, will be, one wherein there will be equal rights for all its citizens regardless of race, nationality and origin." -Menachem Begin
"Once we have a war there is only one thing to do. It must be won. For defeat brings worse things than any that can ever happen in war." -Ernest Hemingway
"To avoid criticism do nothing, say nothing, be nothing." -Elbert Hubbard
"We, Jews from the Arab/Islamic countries, want to tell the world our story. But there is one problem: our generation is getting old and we don’t have much time left. The media doesn’t care much about us, neither does the UN." -Joseph Wahed
"When people criticize Zionists, they mean Jews. You're talking anti-Semitism." -Martin Luther King, Jr.
"All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing." -Edmund Burke
"Do not pass up a chance to express your views on important issues.... If a dictatorship ever comes to this country, it will be by the default of those who keep silent." -Ayn Rand
"I do not reject peace, but I am afraid of war disguised as peace." -Cicero
“My philosophy, in essence, is the concept of man as a heroic being, with his own happiness as the moral purpose of his life, with productive achievement as his noblest activity, and reason as his only absolute.” -Ayn Rand
"Please do your best to get me out of here, because Lebanon is no place to be, and I really want to see you all -- no one should have to remain in captivity when there are other alternatives... Yom Kippur is approaching and I will be praying together with you. Let’s hope that He will help the leaders make the right choices. But you can also help." -Ron Arad in a letter to his wife, Rosh Ha'Shana 1987
"The Egyptian, the Babylonian, and the Persian rose, filled the planet with sound and splendor, then faded to dream-stuff and passed away; the Greek and the Roman followed; and made a vast noise, and they are gone; other people have sprung up and held their torch high for a time, but it burned out, and they sit in twilight now, or have vanished. The Jew saw them all, beat them all, and is now what he always was, exhibiting no decadence, no infirmities of age, no weakening of his parts, no slowing of his energies, no dulling of his alert and aggressive mind. All things are mortal but the Jew; all other forces pass, but he remains. What is the secret of his immortality?" -Mark Twain
"We make war that we may live in peace." -Aristotle
In July 2009 a school teacher from London said that he had been fired after noting the rise of racism and harassment in his classroom with school officials.
The instructor, Nicholas Kafouris (pictured), is a Greek-born teacher who taught in East London for more than ten years. He says he encountered many immigrant students from predominantly Muslim backgrounds who would openly praise Islamic extremists in class. He also recalled incidents in which youngsters praised the September 11 Islamic terrorists as "heroes" or would declare Jews and Christians to be enemies during class time.
Although Mr. Kafouris says he underscored the problems to the school's headmistress, including submitting a standard "Racist Incident Reporting Sheet" to the school, he claims his concerns were ignored by the headmistress Jill Hankey.
In a statement to the Central London Employment Tribunal Kafouris says:
Miss Hankey proceeded to excuse and justify the pupil's behaviour, conduct and remarks to me as if I had no right to be offended by the child's remarks and conduct. Amongst Miss Hankey's justifications for the child's remarks, she said, "If the child was older, say 15, I might take it more seriously. He's only nine - he's only doing it to wind you up".
The teacher asserts that he was warned not to contest any of his pupils in class, ultimately causing him great stress which prompted him to take time off from work. Apparently this gave school officials an excuse to fire him from his position.
Perhaps what is most shocking in this case is that there is no evidence the school investigated the teacher's claims and dealt with them to ensure a comfortable learning environment. To tell an instructor to allow his students to run amok and to refrain from addressing the obvious racism exhibited by students is ludicrous.
Today was Nicholas Koufaris' hearing with the employment tribunal.
The Idan Raichel Project's third album, "Bein Kirot Beiti" ("Within My Walls"), is very solid with some Latin American influences. Past albums by the project, which were equally excellent, primarily featured African and Middle Eastern influences.
In his 2009 album Idan Raichel collaborated with successful Colombian singer Marta Gómez to produce and arrange "Cada Día" (Every Day) which is one of two songs in Spanish on the 2009 album.
Raichel's song did very well with Israeli audiences. During the 2009 "Cochav Nolad" in Israel, the equivalent of "American Idol" in America or "The X Factor" in the United Kingdom, one of the contestants and the ultimate winner sang a lovely cover during an episode with Idan Raichel.
A sixteen-year-old Turkish girl was buried alive by her male relatives in an apparent honor killing. The victim is being identified only as M.M. (her initials), but details of her murder have been released. Turkish newspapers are noting that the teenager allegedly brought "dishonor" to her family because she spoke with boys. The victim had contacted police two months before her murder, complaining about beatings she suffered from her male relatives. In Turkey and in the Middle East where people practice the barbaric custom of honor murders, family councils usually decide what to do with relatives for offenses that are considered to violate the moral tenets of Islam or cultural norms.
A subsequent postmortem examination revealed that M.M. had a significant amount of soil in her lungs and stomach, indicating that she was buried alive and conscious, forensic experts told the news agency. “The autopsy result is blood-curdling. According to our findings, the girl – who had no bruises on her body and no sign of narcotics or poison in her blood – was alive and fully conscious when she was buried,” one anonymous expert said.
The girl’s father and grandfather have been formally arrested and jailed pending trial over her killing, according to the agency. The father is reported to have said in his testimony that the family was unhappy that M.M. had male friends.
The girl was reported as missing and no clues about her disappearance were found for 40 days. Her mother was arrested along with the father, Ayhan, and grandfather, Memi, but later released. The two men were sent to prison by a local court and did not speak in the court.
The JIDF, an organization dedicated to exposing anti-Semitism and Islamic Totalitarianism on the web, is one of the nominees for Twitter's Shorty Awards in the politics category. The contest is extremely close, so the JIDF needs your vote if you're a Twitter user (or don't mind signing up). Voting ends tomorrow night at midnight, Pacific Time.
The better the JIDF does in these kinds of internet contests, the more people will learn about the excellent work that they do. The JIDF is currently the only Israeli or Jewish organization in the politics category. As a friend of David, the founder of the JIDF, I can easily attest to the fact that he's one of the most efficient and inspirational Israel advocates I know.
You can be as creative as you want with the reason. Please let your friends and family know that they can help too-- it will only take a few seconds to cast your vote.
Joseph Massad, an associate professor from Columbia University, spoke at UCLA last week. His lecture, sponsored by the Center of Near Eastern Studies, was titled "Pre-Positional Conjunctions: Sexuality and/in Islam" in which he made a bizarre presentation suggesting that there are no homosexuals living in the Arab world because the idea of homosexuality or being "queer" is an imperialist or Western construct. Eric Golub who covered the event for Campus Watch notes that the lecture was in tune with Massad's text, Desiring Arabs, in which he asserts that homosexuality is a social construct. Massad's attitude concerning the West in his text is scathing and derisive, and very far from academic.
Here is an excerpt of Eric Golub's article, published on February 1st, from Campus Watch:
While past CNES lectures resulted in Israel-bashing and anti-Semitism, UCLA finally decided to honor its commitment to diversity by attacking another minority group. This time, homosexuals had their turn in the multicultural bile wheel.
This was not a seminar on sexuality in Islam. From inception to completion, it was nothing more than gay-bashing. This was on par with the thesis of Massad's 2007 book, Desiring Arabs, which posits that gay sexuality among Muslims does not exist, but is rather a Western plot designed to undermine the Muslim world.
There were few attendees, with half the crowd consisting of elderly people and the other half students checking each other out to see if they were being checked out. Upon realizing that the lecture was an anti-sex discussion of homosexuality rather than a pro-sex meeting with flowers and Barry White music, a portion of the audience left.
The UCLA devotion to hyper-tolerance offered plenty of intolerance from Massad. Here's a sampling:
"Queer is about resistance to Islam."
"Queer is unknown and should not be demanded of most of the Arabic public."
"There is no Arabic transliteration of queer. It is a judgmental notice of deviance."
Offering up a helping of academic jargon, he described the queer issue as "epistemological" and "ontological."
Massad then claimed: "To the Islamic, hate and sexuality are only translatable to English-speaking people."
I keep forgetting about imaginary Judeo-Christian rape and honor killings.
"Queer is an imperialist term. It is part of the Anglo-American gay agenda."
He finally figured out the Neocon Zionist conspiracy. It spreads homosexuality throughout the Arab world so that Arab nations cannot reproduce. This explains why, according to the Encyclopaedia Britannica, the Middle East and North Africa are home to, "the world's second-fastest growing population, after sub-Saharan Africa."
"Queer is an example of cultural imperialism."
"Use of 'gay' in Iran is imperial politics."
Ahmadinejad famously told a Columbia University audience that there are no gay people in his country. One might ask Massad, how the West could have exported gay people if there are none over there?
"There is no such thing as Iran/Arab/Muslim sexuality. Sexuality is an English notion."
Is every single Arab or Muslim the result of an immaculate conception?
He then admitted he was "very interested in talking to people about their sexual experiences if they want to tell me." [...]
The Ethiopian Jewish community's Sigd is very important to the community. The holiday is several centuries old, celebrating that Ethiopian Jewry maintained their faith and persevered despite persecution. It was last celebrated in November 2009, traditionally falling on the 29th of the Hebrew month of Cheshvan.
Some naysayers have argued that Sigd is not truly a holiday or it does not fit in with the Jewish religion, suggesting that it should not be adopted by Israel. However, Sigd is as much a holiday which commemorates the heritage and history of Israel's people as Purim celebrates Persian Jewry’s freedom from Haman, the royal vizier to King Ahasuerus, who had planned to kill the Jews under Persian rule.
The following is a video created by a YouTube user Jay3fer to celebrate Sigd 2009 and its official recognition by the Knesset. The song in the video is “Zichronot M'Africa” (“Memories from Africa”) from the kid's Putomayo collection. It is sung by Shlomo Gronich and the Sheba Choir (made up of Israeli children of Ethiopian origin).
The Knesset’s adoption of Sigd in 2008 as an official Israeli holiday was a positive move in the right direction. It can certainly aid Ethiopian Jews in the integration process and promote a greater understanding of the unique community to other Israelis. Like other customs of various ethnic Jewish groups, such as the Mimouna of North African Jews, Sigd should become a part of Israel’s unique cultural fabric. People don’t have to celebrate it if they don’t wish to, but at the very least we can respect the Ethiopian Jewish community enough to acknowledge their history.
Palestinian leaders and the weak-willed international community regularly blame Israel for everything from the weather to sewage infrastructure in Gaza. There won't be much, if any, condemnation of Islamic terror organizations in Gaza for today's rocket attacks and foiled terror attacks.
Also today two barrels with explosive devices washed up on the shores in south Israel. Apparently the explosives were cast a float from Gaza. Several Palestinian terror groups have claimed responsibility for the failed attack, including Islamic Jihad, the so-called moderate Fatah's Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigade, and the Nasser Salah al-Din Brigades. An Israeli team of bomb experts neutralized the explosives.
Last week a UN-backed report from the Human Rights Watch rejected Hamas' asinine claims that the firing of kassam rockets at Israel was meant to maim only military officials. Were the explosive devices which were sent via the sea to Israeli shores, which are filled with tourists and civilians alike, only meant to harm Israeli military too, then?
The Islamic Republic of Iran has vowed to execute nine additional people for their connection with protests following the rigged re-election of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. The nine people sentenced to death are among eleven who were sentenced by Tehran's Revolutionary Court. Two men were hanged last week.
Police have arrested more than 4,000 individuals following the government crackdowns on post-election protests.
Here are some details, courtesy of the Times Online:
Nine more dissidents will be executed soon, a senior member of Iran's judiciary declared today, as the regime stepped up its efforts to deter another huge opposition rally planned for next week.
The regime is sufficiently worried that it has ordered state television not to broadcast the usual historic television footage of insurrection on the anniversary of the 1979 Islamic revolution that toppled the Shah, lest the scenes incite today's opposition to follow suit.
Last Thursday it hanged two men for allegedly plotting against the regime - a move condemned internationally but praised by Ayatollah Ahmad Janati, a hardline cleric, during Friday prayers in Tehran....
I am a journalist and researcher, and have written several research and investigative pieces on various anti-American, antisemitic and anti-Israel groups. My work has been published with several notable organizations, including CAMERA on Campus, FrontPageMagazine, the Investigative Project on Terror and Pajama's Media.
I have worked to raise awareness about issues concerning the Middle East, including the lack of attention to the plight of Mizrahi Jewry and the discrimination of other minorities.
I graduated from the University of California, Irvine with distinguished honors, earning a Bachelors of Arts in English. I can be reached at Reut AT reutrcohen DOT com. While I will endeavor to respond to every e-mail, I am not receptive to antisemitic and anti-Israel propaganda.