What
follows is the exact text of an article published on Nov. 16, 2009
in Ha'aretz, one of the most respected newspapers in Israel.
The article was published under the candid headline: "U.S.
State Department: Israel is not a tolerant society." It is
interesting to note even though many U.S. newspapers did mention
the State Department report referenced in this article. the American
media suppressed the negative references to Israel mentioned in
the State Department report the Israeli newspaper article described.
American media reports focused on State Department criticisms of
other countries, but did not mention Israel's failings. The Israeli
newspaper account of the State Department report -- far more accurate
and revealing than the misdirection appearing in the American media
-- reads thus:
Israel
dismally fails the requirements of a tolerant pluralistic society,
according to a new report from the U.S. State Department.
Despite
boasting religious freedom and protection of all holy sites, Israel
falls short in tolerance toward minorities, equal treatment of
ethnic groups, openness toward various streams within society,
and respect for holy and other sites.
The
comprehensive report, written by the State Department's Bureau
of Democracy, Human Rights and Labor, says Israel discriminates
against groups including Muslims, Jehova's Witnesses, Reform Jews,
Christians, women and Bedouin.
The
report says that the 1967 law on the protection of holy places
refers to all religious groups in the country, including in Jerusalem,
but "the government implements regulations only for Jewish
sites. Non-Jewish holy sites do not enjoy legal protection under
it because the government does not recognize them as official
holy sites."
At
the end of 2008, for example, all of the 137 officially recognized
holy sites were Jewish. Moreover, Israel issued regulations for
the identification, preservation and guarding of Jewish sites
only. Many Christian and Muslim sites are said to be neglected,
inaccessible or at risk of exploitation by real estate entrepreneurs
and local authorities.
The
report makes it clear that practices that have become routine
in Israel are considered unacceptable in enlightened countries
and should be corrected.
Among
other examples, the report notes that more than 300,000 immigrants
who are not considered Jewish under rabbinical law are not allowed
to marry and divorce in Israel or be buried in Jewish cemeteries.
In
the meantime, Rabbi Yitzhak Shapira, a leading Jewish spiritual
authority -- head of an Orthodox Jewish school in one of the so-called
"hardline" settlements of the Occupied West -- issued
a 230-page book in late 2009 entitled The King's Torah,
which the Israeli newspaper Maariv described as "a
guide to whoever is deliberating if and when it is necessary and
permissible to take the life of someone who is not Jewish."
The
book -- which was endorsed by prominent and respected Jewish religious
figures in Israel -- suggested that any non-Jew (including children
and babies) who could, in any way, pose a threat to Israel's existence
should be killed.
A
summary of one portion of the book makes it clear that any non-Jew
(a "gentile" as described in the Israeli press reports)
who, in any way, no matter how innocently, is perceived to be a
threat to Israel snould be slaughtered: "In any place that
the presence of a gentile endangers the existence of Israel, it
is allowed to kill him ... also if he is completely not to blame
for the situation that has been created."
Why
kill infants? The Jewish religious authorities explain that: "There
is a reasonable explanation for killing infants if it is clear that
they will grow up to hurt us -- and in this situation, the strike
should be directed at them."
In
addition, innocent people are allowed to be killed if they belong
to a state that Israel considers an enemy. In other words, if Israel
(or Jewish authorities) decided that America was, in some way, a
threat to Israel, innocent Americans could be sent to the slaughter.
These
are facts. There are not quotations from the pages of an "anti-Semitic
conspiracy theory book." Respected Jewish rabbis in Israel,
supported by Jewish people in Israel, are heralding these ideas
as ways to defend Israel.
Although
lunatic figures such as John Hagee, Pat Robertson, Tim LaHaye and
the late Jerry Falwell would probably find some twisted logic to
endorse this homicidal madness, there are few sane Americans (of
any religion) who would.
That
is why it is so vital that sane Americans learn of the kind of terroristic,
murderous teachings hold sway in Israel today -- ideas found in
the ancient teachings of the Jewish Talmud. Nothing new -- but bad
just the same.
[Sidebar commentary]:
Very Distinguished Names
...
Over
the decades there have been constant allegations by Jewish groups
that some very well-known people past and present-political figures,
literary giants, top-ranking military leaders and many others --
have been either "anti-Semitic" or somehow unsupportive
ofthe interests of the Jewish people and the state of Israel. The
list of alleged anti-Semites that follows is by no means complete
and continues to grow daily. Some of the names may surprise you,
but if those who are making the accusations of "anti-Semitism"
are correct and that those accused of being so are indeed "anti-Semitic,"
then the ranks of anti-Semites include some very distinguished and
respected names indeed. The list follows:
•
President Barack Obama • President Richard Nixon •
President John F. Kennedy • President Jimmy Carter •
President George H.W. Bush • President Gerald Ford •
President Harry Truman • Sen. Robert F. Kennedy (D-N.Y.)
• Sen. William Fulbright (D-Ark.) • Sen. Charles Percy
(R-Ill.) • Sen. Jim Abourezk (D-S.D.) • Sen. Adlai
Stevenson (D-Ill.) • Sen. Ernest F. Hollings (D-S.C.) •
Sen. Mike Gravel (D-Aka.) • Rep. Cynthia McKinney (D-Ga.)
• Rep. Paul Findley (R-Ill.) • Rep. Pete McCloskey
(R-Calif.) • Rep. Ed Zshau (R-Calif.) • Rep. Mary
Rose Oakar (D-Ohio) • Rep. Mervin Dymally (D-Calif.) •
Rep. Gus. Savage (D-Ill.) • Rep. John R. Rarick (D-La.)
• Rep. Steve Stockman (R-Texas) • Rep. Jim Traficant
(D-Ohio) • Rep. Earl Hilliard (D-Ala.) • UN Ambassador
Bill Scranton • UN Ambassador Andrew Young • Governor
John B. Connally (D-Texas) • Defense Secretary James Forrestal
• Defense Secretary Caspar Weinberger • Secretary
of State James Baker • Gen. George Patton • Gen. George
C. Marshall • Gen. George Stratemeyer • Gen. Albert
Wedemeyer • Col. Charles A. Lindbergh • Gen. Robert
Wood • Gen. George V Strong (chief of Military Intelligence-l
942-45) • Maj Gen. George Van Horn Moseley (U.S. Army assistant
chief of staff) • Col. Sherman Miles (chief of Military
Intelligence) • Gen. George Brown (chairman, Joint Chiefs
of Staff) • Adm. Thomas Moorer (chairman, Joint Chiefs of
Staff) • Gen. Pedro Del Valle (U.S. Marines) • W A.
Carto • Dr. Mahathir Mohamad • Walt Disney •
Thomas Edison • Hemy Ford • Carl Jung • Truman
Capote • H.L. Mencken • Theodore Dreiser • Lord
Byron • Nathaniel Hawthorne • Ernest Hemingway •
Thomas Carlyle • Henry James • F. Scott Fitzgerald
• Henry Adams • T.S. Eliot • George Eliot•
Washington Irving • Jack Kerouac • Gore Vidal •
Percy Shelley • Rudyard Kipling • C. Northcote Parkinson
• H.G. Wells • D. H. Lawrence • Franz Liszt
• James Russell Lowell • Somerset Maugham •
Henry Mill • Eugene O'Neill • Sir Walter Scott •
Ezra Pound • George Sand • George Bernard Shaw •
Johannes Brahms • Richard Wagner • William Faulkner
• Robert Louis Stevenson • George Orwell .
at
the Battle of Cowpens, S. Carolina, 1781