I accidentally caught a local news report yesterday morning that sent a chill up my spine. The report was about Obama. Chris Mathews may feel tingles going up his leg when he sees Obama, but that tingle, for me, comes from my wife.
No, this was a distinct chill of fear. I looked over at the TV, and there was the handsome, photogenic newsman talking about the handsome, photogenic Obama's upcoming news conference. There was a photo of our handsome, photogenic, dear leader in the background while the newsman was talking. Under the photo were the topics of the upcoming speech. The one that made me squeamish was the announcement of a cabinet level post to help rebuild U.S. cities hurt by the tanking of the U.S. auto industry.
The handsome newsman read it with a straight face, as if it were no big deal that another portion of our domestic market and our lives was going to be taken over by the government. Yes, more government control over a formerly free market scares me. What scares me more though, is the fact that it has become so matter-of-fact. Government control over our lives, which has been slowly increasing since I was a child, is now barreling full steam ahead. Our rights, which were slowly being eroded (for our own good and the good of the children) are now being erased altogether - and it's no big deal.
We, the people, are no longer concerned that we are no longer a people with a government. We've now been degraded to a government with a people.
Wait, let me correct myself. It's worse than people not being concerned. People are welcoming that government control, begging for it, demanding it. The citizenry wants the government to save us from the collapsing auto industry, from greedy capitalists, from (gasp!) climate change.
Legions of Chicken Littles have turned Americans from a people of innovation, bravery, and fortitude into helpless subjects. As a society, we have decided that freedom is too much work. There is too much uncertainty for our tastes. We are afraid. We are so fearful that we will even allow the government to tell us what kind of light bulbs to use in our homes. We want to be safe and secure in the comforting arms of our Uncle Barack. (I know, I didn't say Uncle Sam. Uncle Sam has demands. He expects us to stand on our own two feet, to be strong and secure in our strength, to defend our country and those weaker than us. That's become too much to ask, too much responsibility and belief in our own self-worth. Uncle Barack wants nothing but our obedience and our wealth so that he can redistribute it.)
Instead of reaching for the stars and welcoming that next challenge, we long to be "free from freedom."
Unless a man has the talents to make something of himself, freedom is an irksome burden.... We join a mass movement to escape from individual responsibility, or, in the words of an ardent young Nazi, "to be free from freedom." It was not sheer hypocrisy when the rank-and-file Nazis declared themselves not guilty of all the enormities they had committed. They considered themselves cheated and maligned when made to shoulder responsibility for obeying orders. Had they not joined the Nazi movement in order to be free from responsibility?
Is this how it is to end, with the formerly free people of the greatest country on Earth whimpering our way into the dustbin of history?
If not, we've got a lot of work ahead of us and a lot of bad thinking to undo.
That's the current mode of thought, isn't it? The government is throwing money around like they have it. Now, it's $4,500.00 to buy a new fuel efficient car if you trade in your old gas guzzler. There's even a catchy title, "Cash for Clunkers." My little gas sipper will be two in November. I dumped my minivan for it. It was either that, or dump around $5,000.00 into repairs on the old rust heap - uh - I mean, clunker. Being the frugal (cheap) guy that I am, I had to figure out what would pay better in the long run. Had I known this was coming, I might have made a different decision.
That government check would have covered over one third of the cost of my bare bones GM. I bought the cheapest one I could find. It's all manual. You even have to roll the windows up and down by hand. I thought the salesman was kidding when he told me that. My kids had never even been in a car that didn't have automatic windows. It was a novelty for days and a story to tell their friends for months.
My father, though, is tickled pink. He's retired, his savings took a big hit like everyone else's but he wants a new car to replace his '98 Buick with over 100,000 miles on it. He's not the only one salivating over this example of government largesse. Isn't that nice of our government, handing out money like that so that people can buy the new cars the government wants them to buy? And who am I to complain? It's not my money their going to be handing out. That's long gone. They're giving my children's and grandchildren's cash.
Is anyone complaining about government turned into Santa Clause, Tooth Fairy, and Easter Bunny all rolled into one? Only those humorless conservatives. They have this weird idea that people should earn their living. Talk about reactionary. Don't they get it? A new day is dawning. All we, the people have to do now, is hold out our hands and say, "gimme." The nice government worker person will oblige our every whim . . . until that person decides that work is strictly for suckers and quits to stand in the handout line with the rest of us progressive thinkers.
So who is going to do the work, when it becomes so much easier to just not work. I'm hearing stories of able-bodied people who have lost their jobs, and as hard as it may be for you to believe, due to extended unemployment benefits, they're not looking for another job. They're tired of working. They know that Obama will provide. The states feel that way. The severely debt-ridden state of Michigan is looking to grab a few billion in stimulus funds. And that will make everything all better and insure that Governor Granholm gets reelected. (I heard that Obama blessed the funds going to blue states so that Democrats will keep their positions.)
Schools are also looking to the feds for more money, and according to Instructor magazine, they're looking for (surprise) "Stimulus" cash. It's not that school districts are being selfish, they just want to save teachers' jobs so that our students can continue to get the world-class education that American public schools have been providing for generations. Of course, from my own experience as a public school teacher, I've seen horrendous amounts of taxpayer money wasted in various ways. But that's another post.
The aim here is to get money from the government now, before that money goes to someone else, and everyone points and laughs at you for being the last doofus on the block actually holding a job.
Well, maybe I'm not completely lazy. I did manage to cut the grass, and before that I went to the gym. I returned some CDs that I borrowed. And I went to my sister's house for a delicious Father's Day barbecue, where I was battered and abused playing with my two year old nephew. But for actual Father's Day content, I recommend Jungle Mom.
All you need to know about Obamacare is at Bookworm Room.
And finally, here is today's comment on President Obama. It's brought to you by that fine fellow at Dry Bones.
Senator Robert Menendez Offers Obama a History Lesson
The link to this video was emailed to me. I passed it on. Now I'm posting it. Senator Menendez, (a Democrat!) from New Jersey helps our beleaguered (fly murdering) president, by offering him a history lesson. In his Cairo speech, Obama claimed to be a student of history. After listening to his speech, it's obvious that he's not a very good student. Fortunately, the senator from New Jersey was paying attention.
If you don't have the patience to sit through a thirteen minute-plus speech, you can read the full text of the speech here. This is highly recommended.
Victor Davis Hanson has also graciously written Obama a short history lesson, correcting many of his stated misconceptions from his Cairo speech. It's short and well worth reading - especially to your friends who still believe Obama when he speaks.
I still don't believe it, or maybe I don't want to believe it, but here is the reaction from PETA on the murder of an anonymous fly by The Obama.
The group People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals wants the flyswatter in chief to try taking a more humane attitude the next time he's bedeviled by a fly in the White House.
PETA is sending President Barack Obama a Katcha Bug Humane Bug Catcher, a device that allows users to trap a house fly and then release it outside.
"We support compassion even for the most curious, smallest and least sympathetic animals," PETA spokesman Bruce Friedrich said Wednesday. "We believe that people, where they can be compassionate, should be, for all animals."
and
Friedrich said that PETA was pleased with Obama's voting record in the Senate on behalf of animal rights and noted that he has been outspoken against animal abuses.
Still, "swatting a fly on TV indicates he's not perfect," Friedrich said, "and we're happy to say that we wish he hadn't."
Don't these people have more important things to be concerned about?
I found some really stupid things written in the Detroit Free Press this morning. At least I thought they were stupid. The writers of these pieces would obviously disagree with me. And it has come to the point for many people, that any idea they disagree with is an exercise in stupidity. That is a foolish way to think. You've got to have the facts or at least a decent argument to back up your thoughts. I may or may not have either.
The first selection is this article, reprinted in its entirety.
The American Civil Liberties Union released a report Tuesday that said the U.S. government's crackdown on terrorism financing has hampered the religious freedom of American Muslims by making it difficult for them to donate to Islamic charities.
Called "Blocking Faith, Freezing Charity," the 166-page report is based on 120 interviews with Muslim donors and leaders.
The report said that nine American Muslim charities, including the Dearborn-based Goodwill Charitable Organization, have been shut down since the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks as a result of government action during the Bush administration.
Muslims can still give to charities. There are many worthwhile charities who cater to people of all religions. If we infidels are constantly expected to reach out to the Muslims in our midst, shouldn't they at least make a minor gesture back? You know, send a few dollars to Goodwill, or the Salvation Army, or any of the hundreds of other charities in this country. If they wish to contribute to Islamic charities, shouldn't there be some sort of monitoring of these charities to make sure none of their zakat goes to jihad? Or have I committed an islamophobic thought crime by wondering if Islamic charities support jihadist murderers merely because there is a documented history of this support?
Former Gov. William Milliken was being characteristcally modest in his Sunday column ("Make Michigan nation's clean energy powerhouse"), because history shows he was a leader before his time when it comes to renewable energy. Had the federal government supported his efforts back in 1976 to promote solar and wind energy in Michigan, we would now be at the head of the curve instead of catching up to it.
Having been a renewable energy advocate back in the 1970s, I saw a great burst of promise regarding our state's energy independence when Gov. Milliken signed Michigan's renewable energy tax credit into law. As a result, some 300 startup companies in solar and wind energy-related businesses were born in our state. That was 1976!
One or two years after the 1976 bill signing, the startup companies died on the vine because of a lack of will by the feds to support ongoing energy conservation tax credits. I pray that we are not going down that same road again.
No, these energy companies didn't die to to government inaction, they died due to consumer inaction. We, the American consumers, weren't interested. If these renewable energy concepts were as great as claimed, there would be no need for the government to shove them down our throats they way they are doing now. There would be no need for the never-ending "green" propaganda campaigns in our schools and media. People would buy them on their own because they would see an advantage to them beyond moral posturing. Unless, of course, we are too dumb to know what is good for us and we need the government to act as a benign guide and caretaker.
And speaking of government as caretaker, nursemaid, mommy, and daddy, here's another delightful letter.
Big banks that still have billions of dollars of uncollectable debt on their books want to repay the government the TARP funds. I wonder if the only reason they wish to repay is to get away from government control in regard to the excessive compensation in the form of stock options, pay and bonuses for top executives and boards of directors?
Well, wouldn't you? Or should executive pay be decided by the government? Some people would say yes to that, under the delusion that their pay will never be government approved. It's only the rich who have to be controlled by kindly Uncle Sam, not we, the people, right?
Oh, and by the way, Obama killed a fly today. It was quite an event. It was too late to be reported in today's Free Press. It still made me wonder if this was serious reporting. Vanderleun, at American Digest has written the post I was thinking of writing about this major event. Of course, he's written it much better than I would have, so we can all be thankful that I read his before attempting my own.
A group that aims to convert Muslims to Christianity has sued the city of Dearborn and its Police Department, claiming the city is violating its free speech and religious rights by limiting its access to patrons at this weekend's 14th annual Dearborn Arab International Festival.
The group, Arabic Christian Perspective, filed a lawsuit Tuesday in U.S. District Court in Detroit, alleging its rights were violated when Dearborn police told the group its members would not be able to walk freely through the festival's four- to five-block area passing out literature promoting Christianity over Islam. Organizers want to confine the group to a designated area, the lawsuit said.
In Islamic countries under Sharia law the penalty for proselytizing any religion except the Religion of Peace, is death. Fortunately they haven't gone that far in Dearborn yet.
In fairness (a concept unknown in the Islamic world) to the city of Dearborn, the article also reports that,
Festival organizers say the issue is not about religion.
"We have Christian and Muslim groups that have information booths (at the festival)," said Fay Beydoun, the executive director for the American Arab Chamber of Commerce in Dearborn, one of the groups organizing the event. Arabic Christian Perspective is welcome to rent a booth as well, she said, but the group has not contacted her organization.
But,
Beydoun said it would be a safety issue to have large numbers of people passing out fliers during the festival.
The safety issue thing sounds shady. How would these flyers be dangerous? Oh yeah, they promote Christianity to Muslims. That could cause dangerous thinking patterns to arise. And will there be a large number of people passing out flyers? I think not.
I've actually wanted to go to one of these things for years, but I never have. If I get my act together, I might go down there. And then I will report back.
Hasn't it been the Republicans, over the 8 years of the Bush administration who were accused of using the "politics of fear" to maintain control over the American people? We were warned about scary terrorist guys who were out to murder us and our children. How silly.
It's certainly a good thing that nice Obama fellow came along to save us from the politics of fear. He's out warning us about real dangers to our lives, like the absence of socialized medicine in the United States.
President Barack Obama asked skeptical doctors Monday to get behind an overhaul of the nation's health care system, declaring it a "ticking time bomb" for the budget that could force America to "go the way of GM."
The difficulty of his task was evident when he said he's against capping awards in malpractice lawsuits, a top priority for doctors, and earned a smattering of boos — a remarkable public response to a popular president accustomed to cheering audiences.
Gasp! What? Obama booed? Horrors! Those greedy doctors, those profiteers, those kulaks just don't know what's good for them. Of course, our Dear Leader, Hussein Obama struck back forcefully,
Flying to his hometown to speak at the annual meeting here of the American Medical Association, Obama struck back forcefully at those speaking out against his efforts to reshape the health care delivery system to bring skyrocketing health care costs under control and expand coverage to the millions of uninsured.
He had his sharpest rhetoric yet for critics, calling them "naysayers," "fear-mongers" and peddlers of "Trojan horse" falsehoods who should be ignored. He warned interest groups and lobbyists not to use "fear tactics to paint any effort to achieve reform as an attempt to socialize medicine."
"There are those who will try and scuttle this opportunity no matter what," Obama said.
If you read the rest of the article, you notice (or at least I noticed) two things. First, all of the advocacy groups have jumped in to demand that their constituents be taken care of under Obama's plan. We regular folks don't have advocacy groups, well, at least we don't have groups that can purchase the ear of the president, or members of Congress.
Second, Obama, as always, makes promises to all of the pressure groups except for the doctors, who shouldn't expect caps on medical malpractice suits. But so what. Doctors are all wealthy, right? And we certainly don't want to hear about all of the sacrifices these greedy doctors made to get their medical education. All we need to know is that they make a lot of money and that makes them greedy. Obama is going to reign in spending, but he's also going to make sure that everyone gets the medical care they need. So, while a vast new bureaucracy will be created, we, the consumer, will save money on our free medical care. And the only alternative to Obama's plan is the complete and total destruction of our country.
How do we know this? Because Obama says so. And if this isn't the politics of fear I don't know what is. To scare you even more, let me just say, "global warming", or is it "climate change"? Which ever one it is, I hope you didn't read this scary post before bedtime.
In the interest of intelligent commentary, go read some of that scare-monger, Thomas Sowell's thoughts on socialized medicine, which I suppose we can now refer to as Obamacare.
I swiped this first one from Subvet a few days ago. He wasn't looking so I went right in and grabbed it. I also emailed it to the people on my list. There is another article from the Jerusalem Post following this one.
When I first visited the Gaza Strip after the Six Day War, I encountered a territory that bore stark witness to Egyptian aggression, callousness and inhumanity. For 19 long years, the area had been run directly by the Egyptian army. Under a "constitution" drawn up by the Egyptians, all legislative powers were invested in the Egyptian military commander, who controlled the civil administration. All political parties, except one endorsed by the Egyptians, were banned. The military governor also acted as the judiciary, and there was no appeal.
There were no elections. A puppet government automatically ratified all legislation that the governor brought before it. In 1965, even this façade of local autonomy collapsed when the Egyptian army dismissed the legislature.
The secret police probed everywhere. No one was immune from sudden arrest and unlimited imprisonment without trial or, at best, a secret trial. The jails were always full and torture was common. There was official censorship of the press and mail, and telephone lines were regularly tapped.
For nearly 19 years, the inhabitants of the Strip were prohibited from leaving their homes from 9 p.m. until dawn on pain of death. This curfew was enforced by roadblocks. Men between 18 and 40 were prohibited from traveling to Egypt unless they were fortunate enough to secure permits. If they failed to return at the expiration of their permit, the military authorities took steps against their families.
The Egyptians seized property at will, while refugees were prohibited from owning land. Thousands of young refugees were forcibly conscripted into the Egyptian army. Many were sent to fight Gamal Abdel Nasser's war in Yemen; others were sent into Israel to murder, sabotage and disrupt communications.
Three-quarters of the able-bodied were unemployed. Medical and social services were almost nonexistent The Egyptians did nothing to help farmers, create housing or develop industry. The majority of Arabs in the Strip outside the town of Gaza were left to rot, without sewage, running water, electricity or roads.
INDOCTRINATION TO HATRED of Israel started at the very tenderest years. I saw pictures which children had drawn, with the encouragement of their teachers, depicting themselves killing Israeli children. The textbooks dripped venom. One text for the third grade, entitled Arabic Islamic History read: "The Jews are always the same, in every time, every place. They live only in darkness. They secretly plan to do evil; they fight only from hidden places because they are cowards. We must purify holy Palestine from their filth in order to bring peace back to the Arab homeland."
So harsh was the Egyptian rule in Gaza that Radio Mecca broadcast this protest on March 10, 1962:
"We would like to ask Cairo: What is this iron curtain that Abdel Nasser and his cohorts have lowered around Gaza and the refugees there? These are the very methods which the dictator Hitler used in the countries he occupied. Imagine, Arabs, how Nasser (who claims to be the pioneer of Arab nationalism) treats the Arab people of Gaza, who starve while the Egyptian governor and his officers bask in the wealth of the Strip..."
THE ONLY AREA in which the Egyptian army was active, aside from suppressing human rights, was in smuggling. There was a lively trade between its warehouses in Gaza - stuffed with television sets, French perfumes, Italian silks and US whiskey - and Cairo, with the cooperation of top officials in Egypt. Long convoys would arrive in Cairo biweekly loaded with contraband. When the Israeli forces captured Gaza in 1956 they found these warehouses. (Predictably the military governor and his cohorts had skipped with all the savings that Gazans had deposited in local banks.)
Egypt's policy for the Strip was succinctly spelled out by the deputy governor, Muhammad Flafaga, in an interview appearing in the Danish newspaper Aktuelt on February 9, 1967:
Question: Why not send the refugees to other Arab countries? Syria would no doubt be able to absorb a vast number of them. Are you afraid that national bonds with Palestine will be loosened, that the hatred against Israel will vanish if they become ordinary citizens?
Answer: As a matter of fact, you are right. Syria could take all of them, and the problem would be solved. But we do not want that. They are to return to Palestine.
UNRWA reported in 1956: "One of the obstacles to the achievement of the General Assembly's goal of making the refugees self-supporting continues to be the opposition of the governments in the area."
Ralph Galloway, an UNRWA official who quit in frustration, observed bitterly: "The Arab states don't want to solve the refugee problem. They want to keep it as an open sore, as a weapon against Israel. Arab leaders don't give a damn whether the refugees live or die."
Here, as I promised, as a follow up, is another interesting article from the Jerusalem Post. It made me question the sanity of the Israelis. It also made me even angrier at the leftist morons (especially the Jewish useful idiots) who buy into the Israeli "oppressive occupation" and "slow motion genocide" lines that we've been fed by the genocidal, Jew-hating Islamists.
Israel began construction of an underground pipeline on Tuesday that will deliver diesel fuel and cooking oil to the southern Gaza Strip.
The decision to build the pipeline followed the suggestion of the political echelon, the IDF said.
Israeli and Palestinian construction crews will both work on the project, the army added.
"The IDF will continue to work to improve the humanitarian situation in the Gaza Strip," a statement released on Tuesday said.
Meanwhile on Monday, Kaddum, a Palestinian village adjacent to Kalkilya, was connected to the Israeli national power grid.
The Civil Administration of Judea and Samaria, which oversaw the work, said the new arrangement would lead to "significant change in the lives of 4,000 villagers, who can now frequently use electricity, and who had suffered from cuts due to a past reliance on generators."
The civil administration worked with local Palestinian authorities to construct the link to the power grid, the statement said.
"This step joins a series of steps taken recently... that can significantly increase the quality of life for Palestinians in Judea and Samaria," the civil administration said.
The more the Israelis give, the more the Palestinians demand, and the more the world condemns Israel. This is not a cycle of violence, but it's still a cycle that needs to end.
I got a call from my wife's uncle (yeah, that makes him my uncle too) after Obama's Cairo speech. He was worried about Israel. My wife's side of the family is Catholic. She converted. Her uncle's call was surprising only because we'd never really discussed politics before. He's a family man who's worked hard all his life and raised his children to do the same. He didn't vote for Obama, but like many of us, the more Obama sets forth policy, the more he worries.
My uncle's mother, my wife's grandmother was Polish. During World War II, her family helped hide Jews from the Nazis. It's something she never talked about until my wife started dating me.
My uncle wanted to be reassured. I didn't have anything reassuring to tell him. I did let him know about my own Israel advocacy and how he can get involved if he really wants to help battle the forces of barbarism. I let him know about CAMERA, Honest Reporting, and MEMRI. There are more useful sites that I didn't mention simply because I didn't want him to become overwhelmed. There are: Myths and Facts, Stand With Us, Debbie Schlussel, and lots of smaller sites. I'm also gathering some SWU material to give to him when I see him at a family gathering next week.
Some people would applaud my uncle's call. I am grateful that he called, because I now know that others are worried about Obama's "reach out to America's enemies with one hand while stabbing America's friends in the back with the other hand" foreign policy stance. I would feel better though if my uncle hadn't had to make that worried call, you know, like if we had a president with knowledge of the situation, the moral fiber to correctly tell good from evil, and the will to battle evil rather than taking the foolish approach of evenhandedly trying to negotiate with it.
I'm going to use this upcoming family gathering not only to give my uncle some good information and advice on fighting for Israel (which is in the best interest of the United States, in addition to the purely moral aspect of this battle) and I'm going to see if I can pique the interest of a few more of my wife's relatives. Knowing them, I bet I can.
I don't post much during the school year. I've got too much work to do. I do write letters though, lots of them - to newspapers - mostly my two hometown rags, The Detroit News and the Detroit Free Press. The News is the more conservative of the two, but they run the same biased-against-Israel type articles that the Free Press does. And they give space to Hezbollah supporting Imam Mohammed Ali Elahi. The only place their conservatism shows is when editor, Nolan Finley writes the occasional piece demanding that Palestinians take responsibility for the violence they promote.
Over the past two days I wrote four letters. And since they're for publication (happens about 10% of the time) I work a lot harder polishing than I do on blog posts. Some nights I'm up way past my bedtime to finish a letter or two. I don't want to be up on these nights. It makes my head hurt. But I know that I must write or the rising bile will never go down, and it will eat away at me until I write. I will be angry the next day if I don't get the letter out before I go to bed. It will be what I think about all day. I will be angry and I might take it out on my students. From what I understand about teaching, that is a bad thing. The headache disappears as soon as I hit the "send" key.
Obama made his speech to the Muslim world. My local papers ran stories, editorial, and analyses. They were exactly what I expected. Write, I must. And I did. And now I'm tired. So I am sitting around reading for most of today even though it is a beautiful day for being outside and working in the yard (and if saw my yard, you would agree that I really should be out there working).
I got it all out though, and I think I did it in an intelligent, well-reasoned manner. Sometimes when I write, I have to remove the anger and sarcasm, but I didn't have a problem this time. Maybe it was because I knew in advance that I was going to have to write.
And now Obama made his D-Day speech. I could have watched it or read a transcript. I don't want to. I know it will be praised by liberal progressives, and actually analyzed and critiqued by conservatives. I don't think Mr. Obama has any respect for our military or understands the role of the military in keeping us free and safe from attack by our enemies. Had Obama led the Spartans, he would have marched 300 negotiators to meet the Persians. After Pearl Harbor, he would have gone to Tokyo to let the Japanese know that we were not at war with them, and apologize for the American arrogance and anti-Japanese policies that made them angry at the United States in the first place. He would have taken an "even-handed" approach to the Holocaust.
So rather than write any more about Obama and his speech, I'm going to steal a bit from Vanderleun,
Today your job is straightforward. First you must load 40 to 50 pounds on your back. Then you need to climb down a net of rope that is banging on the steel side of a ship and jump into a steel rectangle bobbing on the surface of the ocean below you. Others are already inside the steel boat shouting and urging you to hurry up.
Once in the boat you stand with hundreds of others as the boat is driven towards distant beaches and cliffs through a hot hailstorm of bullets and explosions. Boats moving nearby are, from time to time, hit with a high explosive shell and disintegrate in a red rain of bullets and body parts. The smell of men fouling themselves near you as the fear bites into their necks and they hunch lower into the boat mingles with the smell of cordite and seaweed.
I found this video at Israellycool. Is Obama getting ready to stab Israel in the back? I'm no expert in body language, but watching this video, it's clear (and troubling) who Obama is more comfortable with. What's even more troubling is that over 70% of American Jews were duped by this duplicitous fraud.
Before the election, Obama had acolytes reaching out to the Jewish community, assuring us that he was going to be on our side. I'm waiting for the reactions of all of my liberal Jewish friends and family who were shocked and appalled that I haven't fallen under the spell of the anointed one.
On this day in 1941 the country of Israel did not exist. There was no "Palestinian problem" as no Arabs or Muslims referred to themselves as "Palestinians". There was no "occupation" of Gaza or the West Bank. And yet . . .
That day in 1941, on the Jewish festival of Shavuot, the sight of Jews returning from the Baghdad airport to greet the returning Regent Abdul al-Ilah, ruler of Iraq, was all the excuse an Iraqi mob needed to unleash its vengeance.
The attack began at 3 p.m., as the Jewish delegation crossed Baghdad’s Al Khurr Bridge. Violence quickly spread to the Al Rusafa and Abu Sifyan districts. The frenzied mob murdered Jews openly on the streets. Women were raped and infants were killed as their horrified families looked on. Torture and mutilation followed.
Jewish shops were looted and torched. A synagogue was invaded, burned, and its Torahs destroyed in classic Nazi fashion. The shooting, burning and mayhem continued throughout the evening. Jews were dragged from their automobiles. Homes were invaded, looted and burned. On June 2, the fury continued with policemen and slum dwellers joining in.
At the Muallem-Cohen house, young Nezima was terrified. Her father had just returned from the synagogue, relating terrible stories about daughters being raped and homes burned, when suddenly shouting, armed men crashed through his own front gates. Quick, Mr. Muallem-Cohen rushed his family to the stairs to escape to the roof. Up they scampered, first young Nezima, then her mother, and then her father. A shot — Mr. Muallem-Cohen was dead.
Mrs. Muallem-Cohen looked back in horror. Just then a policeman appeared. “They killed my husband,” she shrieked. “How do you want to die?” the policeman snapped back, and then cracked her skull with his gun.
Finally, in the afternoon, British forces punched into the city. They opened fire on the rampagers. A 5 p.m. curfew was broadcast. Scores of violators were shot on sight. The disturbances were finally quelled.
The carnage of those 48 hours would be forever seared upon the collective Iraqi Jewish consciousness as “the Farhud,” best translated as “violent dispossession.”
So much for the fairy tale of Jews and Muslims living in peace and harmony until the founding of You-Know-Which-Jewish-State destroyed that peace and harmony by upsetting that carefully balanced aspect of Islamic society wherein Muslims were masters and Jews dhimmis. By 1951, after a continuous presence in Iraq of 2,600 years, almost all of Iraq's Jews were forced to emigrate to the fledgling state of Israel. A very few remained to be persecuted by the Iraqi government. If there are any Jews left in Iraq today, they are very quiet about it, and they number fewer than ten. Sounds like genocide to me, even though it is politically incorrect, islamophobic, and not very polite to record any of the known genocidal episodes perpetrated by Muslims on people of (not necessarily) other religions.
One more thought: just as almost all of the ancient Jewish communities in the Muslim world have been ethnically cleansed of Jews over the centuries, so have Christian communities. Apologists for Islam never acknowledge that fact and try to ignore it altogether. They will only discuss the Christians who are being forced out of Gaza, Judea, and Sumeria, because they can pin false blame on Israel. We know which religion of peace is at fault though.
"No one can find a safe way out for himself if socety is sweeping towards destruction. Therefore everyone, in his own interests, must thrust himself vigorously into the intellectual battle. None can stand aside with unconcern; the interests of everyone hang on the result." -- Ludwig von Mises
War's legitimate object is more perfect peace. Flavius Vegitius Renatus
This is an optional footer. If you want text here, place it inside these tags, and remove this comment.
CHALLAH AKBAR
