Catch The Jew!: Eye-opening education - You will never look at Israel the same way again

by Tuvia Tenenbom

“The name of Jerusalem is Urushalem, the city of Shalem, a Canaanite god of the Middle Bronze Age period, around 2000 BCE. Jerusalem is the invention of King David, built around 1000 BCE. Earlier in the biblical text every person was allowed to build a shrine to God wherever he felt like, but King David decreed that there was only one place to worship God in. This was a political decision. “In the year 722 BCE the Assyrians, the ancestors of today’s Iranians, conquered Israel and destroyed the Kingdom of Israel. We assume that between 722 and 701 Jerusalem grew tremendously in terms of residents due to the Israelite refugees who moved south, to the Kingdom of Judah from the Kingdom of Israel which had now been destroyed. This is the assumption by Professor Israel Finkelstein of Tel Aviv University. “Now for the City of David,” he continues: “From 1000 to 586 BCE, this city was inhabited by the ancient Israelites, and we assume that most of the Bible was written in this place. Most of the archeological findings in the City of David are from the eighth to the sixth centuries BCE. But in some locations we have found evidence from the tenth to the eighth centuries BCE, which includes the Kingdom of David. Earlier findings were discovered in the Ophel Area, which is north of the City of David. Dr. Eilat Mazar of Hebrew Univeristy in Jerusalem, the granddaughter of Professor Benjamin Mazar, discovered fortifications from the tenth century BCE, which she calls the Wall of Solomon...

“The diameter of the Dome is exactly the same as that of the Holy Sepulcher,” he says, and immediately a Palestinian woman gets up from her seat and comes by to eavesdrop. In other places and under different circumstances this wouldn’t mean a thing, but nothing is normal in this place. She could be a Waqf employee, and if she hears anything contradicting the Islamic faith an international crisis could immediately develop. These things have happened before. To calm her down, I greet her in Arabic. She softens up at once. Where you from? She asks. Germany, I say. Welcome to al-Aqsa, she replies with a loving smile and walks away. The God of Islam loves the Germans. Now safe, Assaf continues: “Architecture-wise, the Dome is of a Byzantine structure, and octagonal, and it seems that the structure was a church before. Another important fact is that each side of the octagon measures twenty meters, exactly as in other churches in the area. During the British Mandate, the British found a Byzantine mosaic underneath al-Aqsa, suggesting that a church existed in the area at some time.” The Jewish Temple, he also tells me, “was exactly where the Dome is now, but there have been no scientific excavations done under the Dome at any period known to us.”

Silwan, in the heart of Jerusalem, wants to be Judenfrei, like Nazareth, and various NGOs stand by their side. And as I keep on walking in Silwan, I think I finally understand why there are so many NGOs here. Where else could one practice his or her darkest wish for Judenfrei territories and still be considered liberal?

“We have to remember what happened in WWII and we have to take responsibility. That is why I am here, to help the people,” she tells me. By the power of my stupidity I get sucked into a conversation with her. Which people do you help? “I work mostly with Israeli Jews.” What do you do with them? “We protect little Arab kids in Hebron from being stoned by Jewish settlers.”

The leftists who speak loudly for democracy, a culture of discussion and fair debate, always prove themselves to act exactly the opposite.

the Left, I discovered long ago, is an entity that justifies violence. They are open-minded only if you agree with them. If you want to see people who sit together and argue opposite views, where everybody has the same chance and freedom to speak, you have to go to a Haredi yeshiva.”

“I’m talking about those Haredi people with a head on their shoulders. Try it. You can discuss anything with them, even the question of whether God exists or not. On the other hand, try talking with a leftist about the idea that the Temple Mount should be given back to the Jews. Try arguing with him that the Oslo Accords have proved to have failed. Would you be able to even finish your sentence? No.”

This is not what happens with leftist NGOs, who get their support not merely from foreigners but also from foreign governments, including Germany. This is a direct involvement of the foreign governments in the internal affairs of Israel. In the USA this kind of involvement is forbidden but, inappropriately, not forbidden here.”

“When Israel, in the 1967 War, kills tens of thousands of Egyptian soldiers and conquers the Golan Heights and the West Bank, what happens? Huge love for Israel in Europe! Check what I just said to you. It’s amazing! When the Jews come back to their land and behave like the owners of the land, anti-Semitism goes away. But when the Jews are willing to give away the heart of their land to the Arabs, anti-Semitism rises. The Oslo Accords brought with them the Islamic suicide bombers. And if not for the handshake between Rabin and Arafat, the Twin Towers would still be standing today. Do you hear what I am saying to you?”

80 percent of Israeli-made documentary films that are political are coproduced with Europeans, and when I say ‘European’ I mean mainly the Germans, who on average fund 40 percent of the cost per film.” Germans again. They just can’t stop recruiting Jews who speak badly of themselves. If German TV or film producers put on such films on their own there would be a huge outcry against them, blaming them – rightly – for anti-Semitism. To bypass this hurdle, German producers smartly finance Jews to do their dirty work. Sad.

Jibril would like me to join him the coming Friday, to celebrate with him the Palestinian Independence Day. It sounds strange to me that the Palestinians would invite foreigners to celebrate a Day of Independence with them, since they keep telling every foreigner that they have no state even if between themselves they say they have a state, but if Jibril invites me I go.

It just occurs to me, don’t laugh, that human rights activists are the biggest racists there are. Really, I’m not kidding. The normal racist fights within his own territory, wishing that his land be cleansed of those he hates. He is misguided, and his thoughts and deeds are deplorable, but at least he has a selfish motive: he wants his land to be only his land. No KKK member, for example, is dedicating his life to clearing Turkey of Turks. The European NGO folks are different. The Jew they are fighting does not reside in their territory, for he lives thousands of miles away, and yet, these Europeans travel thousands of miles to get the Jew – wherever they find him.

5 Broken Cameras, the Oscar-nominated film about the Bil’in protests, “shows life in one Palestinian village,” the New York Times writes in a glorifying review of this film. If you sit in New York and watch a docu-film you may believe that what you see is real. When you are here in Bil’in, and if you understand Arabic, you know better. “The Bil’in protests” is a show, a show of “Allah is with you. Kill them!” Personally, I don’t believe in “Death to the Arabs” and I don’t believe in “Death to the Jews,” even if the latter has been nominated for an Oscar.

“Israel is also not allowed to use its emblem, the Star of David, outside its own country, because this symbol is a religious symbol, it’s a Jewish sign.” Isn’t the Half Moon emblem, used by the PRC, an Islamic symbol? “Yes, it is.” Isn’t the PRC using this emblem? “Yes.” But the Half Moon can be used anywhere? “Yes.” Let me understand, isn’t the ICRC against the use of religious symbols? “No, this is different.” Why? He can’t explain this to me, but I think it’s very simple: Islam starts with an “I” and Judaism starts with a “J.”

Interestingly, my new friend tells me that the ICRC also declared that Gaza, from which Israel withdrew in 2005, is still an Occupied Territory. This means, of course, that Israel is responsible for it and its citizens. If you live in Gaza and want to spend five years studying music, like Nadia, Israel will have to foot the bill. Israel withdrew from Gaza; why is it still occupied? “Because Israel closes its border to Gaza.” Syria closes the border to Israel. Is Syria, legally speaking, occupying Israel? “That’s different.” Why? “Israel is blocking access to Gaza through international waters.” What’s the difference between waters and dry land?

UNRWA did not exist in 1948 and therefore UNRWA does not have the figures. Yep. Just like that. Very interesting, and very illuminating. The fact that one can ascertain that there are five (or eleven) million great-grandchildren without having the faintest idea how to prove it – in addition to this being a mathematical impossibility since original numbers are unknown – shows that UNRWA employs mathematical geniuses far smarter than Albert Einstein. Of course, if UNRWA keeps granting refugee status to every grandchild of every Palestinian it assumes to have lived – and all indications show that UNRWA folks will – we will soon have more Palestinian refugees in the world than Americans and Europeans combined.

Can non-Swiss be on the board of ICRC? “No.” According to ICRC, are Cyprus or Tibet, to cite two examples, occupied territory? “In principle the ICRC will first and foremost share its legal reading bilaterally and confidentially with the parties in a conflict. . . . The ICRC could later communicate its classification publicly.” Would it be correct to say that the ICRC publicly declared the 1967 areas captured by Israel as “occupied” while it did not do the same with Cyprus and Tibet? “I do not have anything to add.” Was the ICRC the first to determine that territories captured by Israel in 1967 are “occupied territories”? “No. The first to consider these territories occupied territories was probably the IDF.” In conversations with the Israeli army, the IDF has disputed this assertion. Yet, leaving this aside for the moment, was the ICRC second in declaring the areas in question as “occupied”? “Unfortunately for your continuing requests, I have to put main priority on other issues now.” Not including emergency expenditures (such as floods, earthquakes etc), could you please supply a list of the top-ten countries where ICRC is operating for the past ten years, in terms of moneys spent? In response, I’m advised to find out on my own. In one of the e-mails from the ICRC I’m also told that the ICRC shares its analysis “with state parties to the Geneva Convention and they follow our reading of the law, with the exception of Israel.” You don’t need to be a lawyer to understand wh...

map”? It is in this moment, the moment when the richer of society practically vow not to be erased from the map, that the Israeli’s subconscious fear is being exposed in all its nakedness. Concertgoers in New York and Berlin, Moscow and Tokyo don’t vow that they won’t be erased from the map; the Jews in Tel Aviv do.

Witnessing the tremendous investments and endless attempts of the Europeans, not to mention the Germans, all geared to undermine the Jews in this land, in Israel, was an extremely unsettling experience. Being showered with love by the Arabs, just because they thought I was an Aryan, a German, was very discomforting. Watching the Jews and seeing how powerless they are, even now that they have their own state, was distressing.