Jews should pray for their Muslim enemies MY RESPONSE!!!

RE: Jews should pray for their Muslim enemies

Dear Editor:

Rabbi Aaron Bergman states that "We are not allowed to pray for the obliteration of a people, nor may we rejoice at their suffering." This statement flies in the face of the reality of what is happening on the ground in Israel and the Palestinian lands under its stranglehold.

Just recently, an Israeli Rabbi by the name of Yousef Falay, who dwells at the Yitzhar settlement on illegally seized Palestinian land in the northern part of the West Bank, wrote an article in a Zionist magazine under the title "Ways of War", in which he called for the killing of all Palestinian males refusing to flee their country, describing his idea as the practical way to ensure the non-existence of the Palestinian race.

Of course this is neither a new nor novel idea for getting rid of the "Palestinian problem" as it is referred to in Israeli circles. It has been circulating for many decades among many Israeli leaders, including Rabbis.

While the good Rabbi is "praying for his Muslim enemies", Palestinians, Muslims and Christians alike, are being slaughtered, imprisoned, and brutalized on a daily basis at the hands of his brethren in the Holy Land. That is the "ugly truth" that he would rather like to keep hidden on these "High Holidays"!

Mike Odetalla

http://www.imemc.org/content/view/21527/1/

Jewish rabbi calls for extermination of all Palestinian males
IMEMC & Agencies - Monday, 18 September 2006, 14:29

A Jewish rabbi living in the West Bank has called on the Israeli
government to use their troops to kill all Palestinian males more than 13
years old in a bid to end Palestinian presence on this earth.

Extremist rabbi Yousef Falay, who dwells at the Yitzhar settlement on
illegally seized Palestinian land in the northern part of the West Bank,
wrote an article in a Zionist magazine under the title "Ways of War", in
which he called for the killing of all Palestinian males refusing to flee
their country, describing his idea as the practical way to ensure the
non-existence of the Palestinian race.

"We have to make sure that no Palestinian individual remains under our
occupation. If they (Palestinians) escape then it is good; but if anyone of
them remains, then he should be exterminated", the fanatic rabbi added in
his article.

Falay is not the first to have called for such extreme measures.
Rabbi Meir Kahane, founder of the Kach movement, called for "the transfer of
Israel's Arab population to Arab (or other) lands." (As it states on the
group's website). Followers of Kahane have been connected to a number of
murders of Palestinians, particularly in the Hebron area in the southern
West Bank. In the most well-known of such attacks, 29 Palestinians praying
in the Ibrahimi Mosque in Hebron were gunned down by Baruch Goldstein, a
follower of Kahane, in 1994, with Israeli soldiers looking on and allowing
the gunman to reload his automatic machine gun and continue killing innocent
civilians. In response to that massacre, the Israeli authorities punished
the Palestinian victims by taking over the Ibrahimi mosque and turning half
of it into a synagogue, where Israeli settlers go to pray each week. And
each year, on the anniversary of the massacre, Israeli settlers in Hebron
dress up like Baruch Goldstein and parade through the streets of Hebron,
firing guns in the air.

The Kach movement recognizes the 'transfer' of 750,000 Palestinians
that took place in 1948 in order for the state of Israel to be created on
their land, but argues on their website that this 'transfer' was incomplete,
and that all Palestinians must be sent away, or killed, in order for Israel
to remain a 'Jewish state'. Their platform reads, "In a genuinely 'JEWISH
State', how can an Arab be an equal when that State has an Independence Day
celebrating his defeat. Its flag isn't that of its people. He isn't trusted

to serve in the army. His cousin born in Haifa [sic] and fled during the
1948 War of Independence cannot return... yet any Jew who never lived there
before is welcomed with open arms. In short, Israel is his enemy's country,
not his. So how can an Arab truly be a loyal citizen in a Jewish State?
Simply, they cannot, and they must go!"

The idea of extermination of Palestinians, or their 'transfer' into
other countries, is not only a view held by extremists on the fringes of
society. Prominent Israeli politicians have also made calls for a
'transfer', or ethnic cleansing, based on race. Just last week, on
September 11, 2006, an Israeli member of Parliament called explicitly for
the transfer of Palestinians (who he referred to as 'Arabs') from the West
Bank (which he referred to as 'Judea and Samaria', the biblical name for the
region where the majority of Palestinians now live).

"We have to expel most Arabs from Judea and Samaria," Eitam said at a
memorial service for Lt. Amihai Merhavia, a soldier who was killed in South
Lebanon in July. "We can't deal with all these Arabs, and we can't give up
the territory, because we've already seen what they do there. Some of them
might have to stay under certain conditions, but most of them will have to
go." Despite a law that would strip Israeli parliament members of their
immunity to prosecution if they are found make explicitly racist statements,
no investigation of Eitam has occurred on this matter, and there was no
condemnation of his statement by the Israeli government.

 

 

http://www.detnews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060926/OPINION01/609260312/1008

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September 26, 2006

Faith and policy

Jews should pray for their Muslim enemies

Rabbi Aaron Bergman

I have spent a long time trying to figure out how to respond to the hateful, outrageous and threatening comments of some Muslim leaders in our own community and abroad toward Israel . Their allegations about Israeli and Jewish disdain for the lives of non-Jews would not deserve response if not for the possibility that they may inspire others toward dangerous and destructive acts.

My initial reaction was to raise every negative thing I could think of regarding the Muslim world and its leadership. But that would simply be playing into the hands of those who sow the seeds of hate in our world. I would be resorting to the same type of stereotyping of a great religion that is poisoning so many today. That is not the way of my faith. That is not how to bring genuine peace into the world.

I am angry that there are those who deny Israel's right to exist. I am even angrier at those who try every day to destroy Israel , including those who use words to inspire hate. No other sovereign nation in the world is under such a persistent threat to its survival. No other nation in the world is forced to use its existence as a bargaining point.

Until the leadership of the Middle East realizes that peace is only possible once Israel is recognized as legitimate, it will stay mired in their endless cycle of hate and self-destruction. Israel is real, and it is not going anywhere. It will live with the Muslim world as partners, not under it.

Nonetheless, Judaism demands that I not hate an entire people for the actions of a few, even if those few seem to have the tacit approval of the silent majority. We are allowed to defend ourselves and our families. We are not allowed to pray for the obliteration of a people, nor may we rejoice at their suffering.

We may be relieved when a threat to us has ended, or when the enemy has been turned away. Any Jew, however, who dances in the street with joy because of the pain and suffering of another is not worthy of being a Jew.

The biggest threat to the Jewish people would be if we adapt the mindset of those who try to destroy us. If we lower ourselves to the level of those who lead through hate and corruption, we will lose our souls.

We are in the season of the Jewish High Holy Days. The psalm we say every day during this time of year is Psalm 27. There is a verse that is usually translated as "Do not give me over to my enemy." The Hebrew, though, can be translated as "Do not put within me the spirit of my enemy."

I am going to pray for my enemies this year, not against them. I am going to pray that God fills all our hearts with love and tolerance. I do not know if it will change anything.

I do know that it will allow me to live with a soul less sullied by hate, and more filled with the love that God demands from us all.

Faith and policy Rabbi Aaron Bergman is director of Jewish studies at the Jewish Academy of Metropolitan Detroit in West Bloomfield.

 

 

Mike Odetalla..."A seed in the eternal fruit of Palestine "

"Come, I'll tell you about Palestine "  www.Hanini.org

http://www.palestinecalendar.org/

http://www.palestineonlinestore.com/

http://www.alnakba.org/

http://www.nakbainhebrew.org/

http://www.palestineremembered.com

http://www.al-awda.org

 

http://www.pcwfund.org    or   http://www.pcwfund.org The link to thewebsite of Palestine Children's Welfare Fund ...Click to buy Palestinian embroidery online, sponsor a Palestinian child, buy a flag or a Kuffiya to feed one, or a donation of  25 dollars to plant an olive or orange tree in honor of some one you know or to commemorate a hero of yours . 

 "The ink of the scholar is holier more than the blood of the martyr"-  Prophet Muhammad (Peace be upon him)

 

 

   

 

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