http://educate-yourself.org/cn/zionismarticleresponse07mar03.shtml
March 7, 2003
http://www.ladah.org/article48.htm
Letter from a Jewish Friend, and a Response
(March 7, 2003)
Dear Mike:
I read your article at http://www.counterpunch.org/ladah03052003.html.
The grief felt by those of us who are Orthodox Jews opposed to the abominable
heresy of Zionism is multiplied in view of the implications of a war in
Iraq rooted in the fact of Zionism being the source of all problems going
on in the Middle East. As you will see from the websites indicated below,
Zionism is a despicable heresy and desecration of Judaism in every single
respect.
The Zionists do not represent anything Jewish, and are, in
fact, the enemies of Judaism. They will have to account to G-d himself for
all their crimes and sins against Jew and Palestinian. May G-d have mercy
on all of us in these dark times. The websites are:
Thank you for your message which you sent a few days ago
in response to my recent article in Counterpunch. It is always a pleasure
to hear from a person true to his or her faith, especially to point out
that Zionism is not Judaism.
Your comments and the comments contained in the various web
sites that you recommended on Neturei Karta were a pleasure to read. They
reminded me of a time when I was in college in the early 1960s. During those
days, my heroes and favorite speakers on the Palestinian question were two
Jewish scholars and one Palestinian scholar, all of whom had the greatest
respect for Jewish opposition to Zionism. The two Jewish Scholars were Rabbi
Elmer Berger and Dr. Alfred Lilienthal; the Palestinian scholar was Dr.
Fayez Sayegh. These courageous men were not afraid to speak what they thought
of Zionism and were not intimidated by the constant threats they received.
Even today I come across some writings by sometimes obscure, but at times
prominent, Zionists who express nothing but contempt for these scholars
because they spoke the truth and because of their stand against Zionism.
The literature exhibited on the web sites that you suggested,
and for which you sent me the links, also reminded me of the Jews with whom
my father grew up, lived and worked in Palestine. You see, I was born in
Palestine and my ancestors lived there for many centuries, perhaps millennia.
My father was a Christian. Although he was not a Moslem like the majority
of Palestinians, he respected and valued Islam as part of his culture and
traditions, and loved his Moslem friends and neighbors. He also respected
and valued Judaism as part of the heritage of the Holy Land in which he
lived, which he loved and under which soil his remains lie; he respected
and loved his Jewish friends. I invite you to read a few pages, excerpted
from my book, about the way my father lived in Palestine with Moslems and
Jews, and how he became a Palestinian refugee:
The information also confirms what I have always known about
the difference between Judaism and Zionism, and reaffirms my love and admiration
for the Jews that my father knew. Unfortunately, the new generation of Palestinians
and Arabs do not have the same understanding of or love for Jews, but only
because the only Jews they encounter are Zionists who robbed their land,
homes and dignity. While many of the Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza
have encountered decent Jews who tried to protect them from the violence
of the settlers during the olive harvest, who walked with them during the
peace marches, who tried to stop the bulldozers from razing their homes,
or who have spoken courageously against the Israeli establishment for the
destruction of Palestinian society, many of them encountered a different
kind of “Jew.” Most Palestinians and Arabs have only encountered,
or heard about, those Jews who are Zionists and the crimes these Zionists
planned and committed against them and their parents and/or their grandparents.
Most of the young generation Palestinians encounter every
day, perhaps many times in a day, the young “Jew” at the checkpoint,
a soldier of the Israeli occupation force wielding so much power over their
lives and humiliating them, their mothers, their sisters and their fathers.
They see death and destruction all around them and feel trapped by the indifference
of the world to their plight. These young Palestinians feel betrayed by
the world including by decent Jews who are not Zionists but simply sit on
the fence, silently, not taking a stand for humanity. They see them taking
a decent and liberal stand and defending the oppressed every where except
in Palestine because they are afraid of, or have a mixed feelings about,
the Zionists and what they represent.
I hope you don’t mind my sending a copy of this message
to all of my friends with a recommendation that they frequent the web sites
you suggested so they can learn about Jewish activism against Zionism:
David, you and I have a lot of work to do to salvage the reputation
of the “Jews” among these young Palestinians from the damage
that the Zionists have inflicted on your faith, just as we have to work
together to salvage the reputation of decent Moslems from the damage that
the Moslem extremists have inflicted on Islam.
Notwithstanding what the Zionists are doing in Palestine and
elsewhere, and like many Palestinians and Arabs, I still have faith in the
goodness of this earth and know that decent people everywhere, like the
Jews you represent, will continue to speak louder and louder, and break
the taboo of criticizing Israel and its policies toward innocent Palestinians
and their institutions.
Thank you for writing and I hope we can keep in touch regularly.
All information posted on this web site is
the opinion of the author and is provided for educational purposes only.
It is not to be construed as medical advice. Only a licensed medical doctor
can legally offer medical advice in the United States. Consult the healer
of your choice for medical care and advice.