Judaism - An Evangelical Religion that founded the modern Jewish Nation?.

Stunning new book....

Controversial Bestseller  challenges the basis of the Israeli State

On the northern side of the Old City of Jerusalem, a frenzied dig is funded by the same American group, Elad, that teaches Zionism to Israeli troops. Haaretz, a major Israeli newspaper, reported  that a leaflet distributed to the troops cited Rabbi Aviner: "The Palestinians claim they deserve a state here, when in reality there was never a Palestinian or Arab state within the borders of our country. Moreover, most of them are new and came here close to the time of the War of Independence." This is from the "Books of Rabbi Shlomo Aviner," who heads the Ateret Cohanim yeshiva in the Muslim quarter of the Old City in Jerusalem.

In its archeology Elad also discards all Islamic archeology as unimportant, ignores the widespread Paganism in the region in and before the Roman occupation, and searches for anything that proves great Judaic cultures existed two or three thousand years ago and dominated the region. Israel may well be the only country where archeology has a place on its Foreign Affairs website, for on it is founded the claim Jews has a right to this land that predates and replaces that of the Palestinians.

When I researched this, I was surprised to find on the contrary that Jews and Palestinians seem to be in part descended from the same ancient Canaanite people that lived between the Gaza and Haifa coast and the hills of Judaea. The Jews of Europe, I also learnt, are mostly descended of Jewish merchants who wedded converted women of the Black Sea region, founding what are known of as the Khazars. 

But now a new book puts much flesh on this narrative. A review posed these questions. "What if the Palestinian Arabs who have lived for decades under the heel of the modern Israeli state are in fact descended from the very same "children of Israel" described in the Old Testament?"

"And what if most modern Israelis aren't descended from the ancient Israelites at all, but are actually a mix of Europeans, North Africans and others who didn't "return" to the scrap of land we now call Israel and establish a new state following the attempt to exterminate them during World War II, but came in and forcefully displaced people whose ancestors had lived there for millennia?"

"That's the explosive thesis of When and How Was the Jewish People Invented?, a book by Tel Aviv University scholar Shlomo Zand (or Sand) that sent shockwaves across Israeli society when it was published last year. After 19 weeks on the Israeli best-seller list, the book is being translated into a dozen languages and will be published in the United States this year by Verso."

It seems the Romans did not expel the whole people from the land, as is widely recounted in stories of the Diaspora. Rather Judaism was for a period an evangelical religion that converted many from other nations.  The consequence of this?  It seems the Palestinians of today may have more roots among the ancient peoples of this land than do most Israelis.

A very revealing review of the book by Prof. Israel Bartal, dean of the humanities faculty of the Hebrew University, was published in Haaretz. What he chose to attack was not that its thesis, but that this history was hidden by Zionism! He reported.

'Here is what was written about the conversion of the Khazars, a nation of Turkish origin, in the Zionist Mikhlal Encyclopedia that the State of Israel's Zionist Ministry of Education recommended so warmly during that "period of silencing": "It is irrelevant whether the conversion to Judaism encompassed a large stratum of the Khazar nation; what is important is that this event was regarded as a highly significant phenomenon in Jewish history, a phenomenon that has since totally disappeared: Judaism as a missionary religion.... The question of the long-term impact of that chapter in Jewish history on East European Jewry -- whether through the development of its ethnic character or in some other way -- is a matter that requires further research. '

'The Zionist "Toldot am yisrael" [History of the Jewish People] explains that the number of Jews in the Diaspora during the ancient period was as high as it was because of conversion, a phenomenon that "was widespread in the Jewish Diaspora in the late Second Temple period .... Many of the converts to Judaism came from the gentile population of Palestine, but an even greater number of converts could be found in the Jewish Diaspora communities in both the East and the West." The number of Jews living outside Israel in that period "exceeded that of the tiny Jewish community in Palestine."

He asks: "What is Sand trying to prove in this study? In his view, the homeland of the Jewish people is not Palestine, and most Jews are descendants of the members of different nations who converted to Judaism in ancient times and in the medieval period. He claims that the Jews of Yemen and Eastern Europe are descendants of pagans."

He makes no attempt to disprove this, but retorts: "My response to Sand's arguments is that no historian of the Jewish national movement has ever really believed that the origins of the Jews are ethnically and biologically "pure."

He then extraordinarily asserts: 'No "nationalist" Jewish historian has ever tried to conceal the well-known fact that conversions to Judaism had a major impact on Jewish history in the ancient period and in the early Middle Ages. Although the myth of an exile from the Jewish homeland (Palestine) does exist in popular Israeli culture, it is negligible in serious Jewish historical discussions." 

Perhaps this is true in his academic circles, but the opposite view certainly dominates much of the popular discourse. It is fervently believed in by the Christian Zionists who have much strengthened the American and British Israeli lobbies. I have also heard it repeated by many of the Israeli settlers that have moved into the West Bank. It is in the teachings of certain prominent Rabbis - and it is in some of the literature distributed to members of the Israeli armed forces. It seems from his testimony, and from that of this book,  that the story that a Jewish nation was owned this land, was dispossessed and has now returned, is not yet proved.

Janine Roberts


(This article draws on a review by Joshua Holland in Alternet, Jan 28th, as well as on that of the Professor cited above. The book came out recently in Hebrew.)
















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THE APPEAL FOR GAZA - as not on the BBC

The Guardian in the UK reported...

In a statement to the Guardian, Mohamed ElBaradei, a Nobel peace prize winner, unleashed a stinging denunciation of the BBC, deepening the damage already caused by the controversy.

The statement, from his office at the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), said the BBC decision not to air the aid appeal for victims of the conflict "violates the rules of basic human decency which are there to help vulnerable people, irrespective of who is right or wrong".

It said the IAEA director had cancelled interviews with BBC World Service television and radio, which had been scheduled to take place at the World Economic Forum in Davos on Saturday.

yesterday, Sky News announced it would not broadcast the appeal either. But it was the BBC's refusal to broadcast which made headlines across the Middle East, and by last night had led to more than 15,500 complaints.

Shortly before the appeal aired, in London protesters burned their TV licences in front of a line of police outside the BBC's Broadcasting House.

More than 110 MPs had signed an early day motion urging the corporation to reverse its decision. The BBC is also facing a growing revolt from its journalists, who have been told they could be sacked if they speak out on the issue.

The Board of Deputies of British Jews said after last night's broadcast that it was "inclined not to comment", but added: "There is no doubt that any appeal which simply seeks to raise money for innocent civilians should be applauded."

Racism and Ideology in Israeli Military

Some of the Israeli army rabbinate's publications challenge international law according to Israeli sources.

Haaretz, a major Israeli newspaper, has received some of the publications from Breaking the Silence, a group of former soldiers who collect evidence of unacceptable behavior in the army . Other material was provided by officers and men who received it during Operation Cast Lead. Following are quotations from this material:

"[There is] a biblical ban on surrendering a single millimeter of it [the Land of Israel] to gentiles, though all sorts of impure distortions and foolishness of autonomy, enclaves and other national weaknesses. We will not abandon it to the hands of another nation, not a finger, not a nail of it." 

This is an excerpt from a publication entitled "Daily Torah studies for the soldier and the commander in Operation Cast Lead," issued by the IDF rabbinate. The text is from "Books of Rabbi Shlomo Aviner," who heads the Ateret Cohanim yeshiva in the Muslim quarter of the Old City in Jerusalem.

PLEASE GIVE TO THE GAZA APPEAL - DESPITE THE BBC

Editorial critique.  

Leading article in the Independent: Welcome but fragile, this ceasefire must be only a start   Monday, 19 January 2009

When it comes to Israel/Palestine, our liberal press reveals remarkable blind spots   - as shown by this editorial.  It repeats the established line that " a way had to be found of stopping the smuggling of weapons and their components into Gaza – a lucrative business for some that provided much of the arsenal Hamas was able to draw on. "

 The Israeli Foreign Minister rushed to Washington  to get an agreement from the States to stop the tunnels into Egypt but though these pass, not just arms, but vital food and medicines that Israel has been keeping from this imprisoned nation, in an effort to starve them into submission.  The piece of paper obtained by Israel in Washington is totally impractical, a pointless piece of paper since neither Egypt nor Hamas have agreed to the presence of American forces on the borders.

But why is strengthening the prison walls an objective endorsed by Western Governments?  Is not Hamas their elected government?  Are we not saying we support Palestinian independence in a two state "solution"?  Last time I checked,  independent states have the right to import arms to protect their citizens.  What happens if in the next Palestinian election Hamas is again elected into power - as must now be considered very likely? The way to ensure weapons are not used is to end this occupation in a just and fair manner.

The editorial went on to say. "If the military wing of Hamas has, in fact, been disabled, Mr Olmert will also be able to bow out next month, having salvaged his reputation as a war leader after the troubled Lebanon operation of 2006."  Who says it has been "disabled?" Not even the Israeli leadership.  

It then concluded: "What is beyond doubt is that these three weeks of harrowing combat have changed the situation on the ground decisively in Israel's favour."  Pardon me? Beyond doubt? Israel surely has been substantially weakened by carrying out a terrifying and murderous assault on Palestinian population in front of TV cameras operated by Arab and Palestinian crews and by the quite evident, widely reported, enhanced support now given to Hamas. It surely has shattered much of Israel's credibility.

Then the Editorial went on to say. 'The impressive turn-out presided over by President Mubarak in Sharm el-Sheikh yesterday – which included the Palestinian President, and leaders of Britain, France, Germany, Italy, Spain, Turkey and Jordan" - but it forgot to mention the other gathering of leaders that took place at nearly the same time on the Gulf attended by the leaders of Lebanon, Syria, Iran, Gulf leaders and Hamas. Very strong statement, in line with those that came from this gathering,  were also made by the Prime Ministers of Iraq and Turkey. 

Clearly this conflict has torn asunder the  Middle East,  weakening the old leadership funded by the West that were in Sharm el-Sheikh - quite the opposite to what this editorial had to say.

Only a final sentence can I praise - but it is evident. It is "the cost to Israel's international reputation, which had been enhanced by its 2005 withdrawal from Gaza, is likely to have been high, especially in Arab countries. The trust essential to starting negotiations on any future, comprehensive, settlement remains as elusive as ever."

GAZA STALEMATE for ISRAEL?

Tonight Israel declared an unilateral ceasefire as Hamas fired more rockets.

What kind of victory has the Israeli government just declared?  They have wrecked Israel's reputation around the world;  the brutality of their army has been evident on countless millions of TV screens, anguished protests have gone up to God from a thousand million throats - and for what?

Surely Israel cannot be proud of what their armed forces have just done?  What kind of bravery is involved in dropping one ton bombs on a people who have no anti-aircraft guns and no air force?  What kind of insecurity complex is Israel suffering from? Is it that they know in their hearts that they are living on seized lands?

Why have the Israeli forces suffered relatively few deaths?  Because they adopted a strategy of destroying the homes of the Palestinian families in front of their tanks, sometimes with the families still inside them as TV journalists have extensively documented,  so Hamas soldiers could not ambush the Israeli troops, could not kidnap  them.  

Heeretz, a leading Israeli newspaper, has just reported:  " The IDF is proceeding in Gaza in a slow, orderly, efficient and very destructive manner. During 2002's Operation Defensive Shield, in the Jenin refugee camp, disagreements developed among the different units as to how much force should be applied. A battalion of the 5th Reserve Infantry Brigade, which employed relatively humane operating methods, suffered 13 casualties in one single day from an ambush and roadside explosives. After those incidents, everyone took up the "Buchris method," named after the commander of the 51st Golani battalion, Lt. Col. Ofek Buchris (today a brigade commander in the reserves): Forceful entry with "Akhzarit" ("cruel") armored personnel carriers, which demolished houses' walls before the soldiers entered them, leaving them a relatively protected corridor."

Israel's spokesmen make feeble excuses. "Hamas is hiding among civilians."  What is Hamas?  It is not only an elected government.  They are the husbands, boy-friends, sons, grandsons who fight to protect their families, who guard their families' doors, who fight against a military occupation that has cruelly ruled them for 60 years and starved them, ever since the Israelis seized their lands, driving them from their farms and towns into exile in Gaza - and then occupying Gaza itself for 40 years, regulating their every movement.

Israel says they left the Gaza strip two years ago.  Yes, the prison guards decided to operate from behind the walls in which they had imprisoned one and a half million Palestinians. That is no liberation.  

They say they allowed the Gazans the chance to develop the Gaza strip.  What development when Israel stopped them from having an airport,  drove thousands of fishermen from their seas,  held up their exports of fruit and vegetables so they rot at the border,  so their sick and pregnant die at the gates, prevent them from repairing water pumps and sewage works, reduce them to third world status  while the Israelis live in US style comfort and are allowed to compete in Eurovision unlike their Arab neighbors?

end

500 Jewish citizens of Sderot Contradict Israeli Government over Hamas Ceasefire.

500 Jewish citizens of Sderot say –'Hamas kept the Ceasefire'

By Janine Roberts c2009  email jan@janineroberts.com

Much has been made of Hamas’ reported failure to honor last year’s truce. But, an extraordinary correspondence between Jewish residents of the much-rocketed town of Sderot, nearby kibbutz and the Palestinians living in the Gaza strip, paints a very different picture of that truce from that repeatedly given by the Israeli government.

Barrack Obama was taken to Sderot last year to show him the effects of rocketing. He remarked on how Israeli towns looked like American from the air and offered his full support to the town’s citizens, promising to invite its representatives to the White House soon after taking office. At the time in mid-July Sderot was safe to visit. There had been no casualties from rockets since the ceasefire started 4 weeks earlier.

Obama in Siderot July 2008

On July 12th 2008, a Gaza resident, using the pseudonym of “Peaceman,”  emailed friends in Sderot to say. “The situation is calm … and this make people happy a lot, because there are no dead and wounded [but] the border is still closed… I myself have been waiting two years to go to Europe to study.’ Nevertheless ‘We have now a golden opportunity to try to build a new world without violence.’

His friends replied to say how much better it was now the rockets had stopped. They told how they cycled along the Gaza borders and were greeted with waves by Gaza residents. They revelled in the freedom from danger. A joint children’s holiday was planned and greetings cards exchanged. (See samples at end)

One such message read “I live with my family in Kibbutz Beeri, close enough to Gaza to see the houses and the sea. On weekends I ride my bike with my husband through the fields along the border … I hope the violence will come to an end and the Palestinian State will be established with peace between our peoples and peace within each of our countries between the extremists on each side. ”

Sderot is built on the lands of Najd, a Palestinian village ethnically cleansed by Jewish militia in 1948. Its residents probably fled into the Gaza strip. Most of Gaza’s population is descended from such refugees. However, this history was not allowed to prevent this growing friendship – nor were the deaths of people from both towns in the months preceding the ceasefire.

The ceasefire was still intact months after Obama’s visit. In October 2008 an Israeli in Sderot, using the pseudonym “Hopeman,” emailed his friend in Gaza to say: ‘We have lived for almost 5 months in a ceasefire situation. On my side of the border, things returned to normal and we once again felt safe. Kids played freely outdoors, streets filled once again with people, and the constant fear of the rocket alerts disappeared. My kids went to sleep in their room again, instead of the safe room, and I could walk out to the fields surrounding the town without the fear of being out in the open with nowhere to hide.’

On October 9th an Israeli newspaper, the Star, headlined: ‘Israeli town celebrates end to daily rocket fire. It reported: ‘Besieged residents of Sderot were relieved by the quiet start to Yom Kippur, thanks to the ceasefire with Hamas …Young boys horsed around on their bicycles, families hurried to make last-minute purchases at the downtown supermarket, and food stands did a steady business in shawarma and beer.’

‘”Everything is different," exulted Jasmine Aboukrat, 25, sales clerk at the Cochovit Dress Shop near Hagofer St, "People go out more." “Now you see all the children outdoors, playing," said David Coyne, 38, who owns a candy shop in the centre of town. "It's secure.”’

The paper explained: ‘For seven years, local residents barely went out at all. But, late last June, under Egyptian mediation; the Israeli government reached a ceasefire agreement with the Palestinian militant group Hamas. Since then, with only a few violations, the rocket salvoes from Gaza have stopped.’Sderot is ‘a rambling community of boxy bungalows and low-rise apartment blocks. interspersed by palm, cypress and eucalyptus trees, ‘ with a library that has nearly as many books in Russian as in Hebrew, reflecting its recent arrivals. It’s people ‘say they are hugely pleased with the new air of tranquillity that now permeates their town.’

The newspaper also reported that there were no more ‘punitive Israeli military incursions into the neighbouring strip – attacks that had been a frequent and deadly feature of Palestinian existence prior to the laying down of arms in June.’

But Hopeman emailed from Sderok: ” During this time I have been in touch with many friends of mine in Gaza, and from them I heard a very dark and troubling reality…The siege Israel had imposed on them continues. They have many power shortages and very little fuel and cooking gas.’

On the 4th November, the day when Americans were watching the results of the Presidential election, the Israeli army broke the ceasefire by raiding the strip. Six Palestinians were killed. Next day the Palestinians reacted as could be expected by sending a shower of rockets and Israel immediately slashed supplies of medicine, fuel, food, cooking gas for the 1.5 million people of Gaza. The number of truckloads fell from October’s daily average of 123 trucks to less than 5 trucks. Some families were reduced to eating bread made from animal feed. Others were reduced to eating grass.

An email was sent: ‘Peace Man and I talk every day. We support each other and worry for each other’s well being. I am in contact with others in Gaza and share my situation while hearing of theirs. Much fear and pain on both sides. Once again we should all call to end the violence, open the siege, start talking and bring back hope to us, civilians on both sides, pawns in the unbearable senseless political game.’

Then Hamas told Israel that a renewed ceasefire must be accompanied by an end to the increasingly cruel siege, but Israel refused to accept this.

The friends ‘realized that the situation was about to deteriorate into total chaos’ said Arik Yalin, 43, of Sderot, the spokesman for this Israeli-Arab group. They put up a website that stated:’ Up until now we have cried, called, demonstrated, and asked our leaders to do something about this insane reality in which we live. The leaders have tried every possible idea that involves violence and military force – with no success at all.

‘We shoot at them and they shoot at us. We retaliate and they strike back.

This is an endless and vicious cycle.

‘Today we say: ENOUGH! It is our turn to take our destiny into our own hands and to ACT to stop the cycle of bloodshed.’

They sent a petition to the Israeli Government in the name of their group; ‘’Kol Acher’ (The Other Voice). Five hundred citizens of Sderot signed it as well as another 1300 Israeli and Palestinian citizens. It read:

‘Kol Acher from Sderot and the communities around Gaza calls on the Prime Minister and the Defence Minister to act urgently to restore calm in the area.
The ceasefire changed the lives of the people of Sderot, Ashkelon and the region beyond recognition, allowing all of us to experience again a life that is more normal and sane. The continuation of this calm is essential and critical to the residents of the region from every possible aspect: physical, mental, spiritual and economic.
Another round of escalation may break our already brittle spirit, and take us all to another round of self-destruction and pointless bloodshed. It is not certain that we will survive. And you must be aware of that, if you indeed care about the residents of this area. We’ve been through this movie too many years–and results speak for themselves: feeling trapped, abandonment, and hopelessness for our children and us!
On the other side of the border live a million and a half Palestinians under unbearable conditions, and most of them want, like we do, calm and the opportunity of a future for themselves and their families.
We live in the feeling that you have wasted that period of calm, instead of using it to advance understandings and begin negotiations, as well as for fortifying the houses of residents as promised.
We call on the Prime Minister and the Defence minister not to listen to the voices of incitement and do everything they can to avoid another round of escalation, to secure the continuation of the calm and to work...towards direct or indirect negotiations with the Palestinian leadership in Gaza in order to reach long term understandings.
We prefer a cold war without a single rocket to a hot war with dozens of victims and innocent fatalities on both sides.
We ask you to offer us the possibility of political arrangement and hope and not an endless cycle of blood.’

Their petition had no effect. On December 27th, while politicians in the West were on holiday and the US had a lame duck President in his final weeks of office, Israel launched its savage assault.

That same day the Israeli Foreign Ministry changed its website, removing charts giving the numbers of rockets and mortars fired every month from the Gaza strip, perhaps because they revealed the near-total cessation of fire during the truce. These charts were based on statistics supplied by the Israeli Intelligence and Terrorism Information Center and provide striking evidence of Hamas’ good faith. Contrary to government statements made repeatedly since then, Israeli government statistics show Hamas kept the ceasefire.

Removed Israeli Government Graph. ‘Monthly distribution of rockets hits.’

Together with a similar graph for mortar fire, these reveal that the total number of rocket and mortar attacks launched from Gaza fell from over a hundred a month to just 12 in all from the start of July to the end of October. The Ministry has replaced these graphs with one that is harder to interpret. It claims ‘227 rockets were fired during the lull in the fighting’ but notes that 203 of these were fired after November 4th, the date when Israel broke the ceasefire. This is still on the Government website. It is reproduced below.

Credit for the 12 rockets fired during the ceasefire were reportedly claimed by Fatah’s al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigade, Islamic Jihad or the "Badr Forces.’ Hamas condemned them.

It is worth going back to what else Obama said in Sderot: “I will not wait until a few years into my term or my second term if I'm elected, in order to get the process moving. I think we have a window right now that needs to be taken advantage of. I think you've got a set of moderate Palestinian leaders who are interested. I think the Israeli people are interested in moving this process along. But I also think there's a population on both sides that is becoming increasingly frustrated with the lack of progress. And where there's hopelessness and despair, that can often turn in a bad direction.”

Obama on January 11th said he would be ready to do all he can to bring peace from the day he takes office. But – has Obama heard these voices of Sderot? I doubt he did when he went to their town, but, if he did, then he will know that the Israeli government is wrong to claim that the only way they can stop the rockets is by physically destroying Hamas with all the slaughter this entails

Perhaps Obama should also take advice, not already doing so, from the former UK Ambassador to Israel, Sir Jeremy Greenstock. On 9th January 2009 he unhesitatingly said during a BBC interview: “Hamas is not a terrorist organisation,” adding he knows from talking to them that they are focussed on ending the decades of military occupation. He also affirmed; “Israel broke the truce by its actions on 4th November.”'

Perhaps Obama should also listen to the Catholic priest, Fr. Latham, who preached in Bethlehem on Sunday 4th January, saying the Palestinians are being ‘crucified everyday.’

END…

Janine Roberts c2009 jan@janineroberts.com
Blog www.speakingloudly.blogspot.com

The post cards sent from Sderot to Gaza Strip for Eid – to see them all click here.

With thanks to Daniel Edelson whose article for an Israeli newspaper alerted me to this.

Janine Roberts has written for many major Australian newspapers and both the Independent and Financial Times in the UK. Her investigative films have appeared on the PBS network in the USA and on the BBC and Australian television. She was invited to testify at a US Congressional Hearing on Human rights in Africa and the blood diamond trade. Her latest investigative books are “Glitter and Greed” and the “Fear of the Invisible.”