“People of the Book” under attack

“Europe is burning, just as Notre-Dame was” (Dennis Prager, April 17). The Ministry of Interior in France recorded 541 anti-Semitic and 1063 anti-Christian acts in 2018. According to the statistics, an average of two churches per day was destroyed by fire in France.

Only a few of these incidents made the news headlines. In general, the church leaders and authorities were silent so as not to alarm their congregations and cause anti-migrant (Muslim) sentiments. One may wonder about the fear the European Jews have as they see Christianity’s holy sites burning. The world Jewry lost their artifacts, holy books, worship places and lives of millions of Jews in the previous wave of fires in the 1930s and 1940s.

The “Israel Apartheid Week” saw demonstrations against Israel, as well as counter-demonstrations by Israel’s supporters in South Africa in April 2019. The annual event is organized on behalf of the Palestinians. At the same time period, numbers of Jewish gravestones were destroyed in Romania. Knife and other attacks against Jews reached new heights globally in 2018. May we Christians do all we can to support our brothers and sisters of the Jewish faith as Jews and Christians are the People of the Book.

Deadly riots in Gaza

For March 30, the Hamas terrorist organization forced Gazans to riot at the Israeli border and called it a “million man march.” It was to mark the first anniversary of the 2018 riot movement, named March of the Return. Over 40,000 Arabs rushed to the border throwing explosives and stones at the IDF soldiers and burning the usual quantity of tires to cause pollution on Israel’s side. As a result of the violence, three terrorists were killed by the IDF fire and hundreds were injured.

To disperse the masses of violent demonstrators, the IDF used for the first time a new Israeli developed system called “The Roar” or Sha’aga. It is a non-lethal riot dispersal system based on radio waves. The soldiers who operated it reported that it had been very effective for controlling the rioters and avoiding fatalities.

Please pray for the safety of Israeli soldiers as they risk daily their lives to keep the nation save. Thank you!

Flashback from the 1930s

As anti-Semitism is spreading in European countries,

a Polish right-wing newspaper with a national distribution ran in one of its March issues an article that instructed readers on How to recognize a Jew. The weekly newspaper, called Tylko Polska or Only Poland, listed on its front page some Jewish names, anthropological features, expressions, appearances, character traits and methods of operation. The article that was included in the current press kit also read: “How to defeat them? This cannot go on!” Poland is one of the countries of strong anti-Jewish sentiments. In the February 2019 Holocaust Conference in Paris, France, the Polish representatives felt attacked by other conference speakers. In 1938, to easily recognize Jews by their name in Germany, Jews with non-Jewish first names had to add “Israel” (men) and “Sarah” (women) to their names. For the same reason, a large “J” was imprinted on the Jewish passports.

News from Romania and Brazil

Viorica Dancila, the first female Prime Minister of Romania, announced in the 2019 AIPAC (American Israel Public Affairs Committee) meetings that Bucharest will transfer their embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem. Today there are about 400,000 Romanian Jews in Israel.

On his April state visit to Israel, President Jair Bolsonaro announced that Brazil will open a trade and commerce office in Jerusalem. The Jewish community in Brazil is estimated to be 120,000 people, the 9th largest in the world.

Most of the Romanian Jews in Israel have settled in the pioneer cities of Zichron Ya’akov (photo), Rosh Pinna and Kiryat Bialik

On his April state visia to Israel, President Jair Bolsonaro announced that Brazil will open a trade and commerce office in Jerusalem. The Jewish community in Brazil is estimated to be 120,000 people, the 9th largest in the world.

Pray and give thanks

The Polish view of the Holocaust

In February, a diplomatic fallout took place between Poland and Israel. The acting Foreign Minister of Israel, Israel Katz, and PM Benjamin Netanyahu had made statements critical about Poland’s involvement in the Holocaust. Israel Katz had stated that “I am a son of Holocaust survivors and I was even born and grew up in a community made up of Holocaust survivors. The memory of the Holocaust is something we cannot compromise about; it is clear and we won’t forget or forgive.” Katz added a few days later that “the Poles took part in the extermination of Jews. Poland became the biggest cemetery of the Jewish people.” Katz also referred to Prime Minister Yitzak Shamir’s words years earlier, “that Poles suckle anti-Semitism with their mothers’ milk.”

Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki

Israel Katz’s statements did not go well with Poland’s Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki. As a younger man, without a personal Holocaust experience,

Morawiecki did not accept any generalization about his country’s involvement with the Nazis in the horrors of the Holocaust. He argued that what happened in Poland was done only by individual criminals.

The tension between the two countries has been high since February 2018, when Poland passed legislation outlawing any blame on Poland for Nazi crimes against the Jews. The reasoning behind the new law is that the Poles were mere bystanders to the Nazis’ deadly mission. The statistics in the Yad VaShem Memorial Museum in Jerusalem tell about a different reality. Out of the 6.0 million Jewish victims of the Holocaust, about 3.0 million Jews were killed in Poland. The Soviet Union murdered 1.3 million Jewish men, women and children.

The UN and claims against Israel

In 2018, the attacks on Israel over the Gaza border burned tens of thousands of acres of farming land and forest, causing wide-spread smoke pollution over Israel. People on both sides of the border were killed and hurt. The conflict that was initiated and forced on the Gazans by the Hamas terrorist entity still continues with daily destruction and danger to Israel.

On February 28, the United Nations Independent Commission of Inquiry claimed that there is evidence that Israel committed “war crimes against humanity” in responding to the “protests” in Gaza. The report argues that Israeli snipers targeted children, heath care workers, journalists and people with disabilities─ week after week at the “protest” sites. Why did Hamas force children, mothers and special-needs adults to the war zone? The answer is for Hamas to gain an international sympathy by their so-called harmless demonstrations.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and other Israeli leaders rejected the report, accusing the UN of “setting a new record for hypocrisy and mendacity, out of an obsessive hatred of Israel. It is Hamas which fires missiles at Israeli citizens, throws explosive devices and carries out terrorist activity during the violent demonstrations along the Gaza fence. Israel will not allow Hamas to attack Israel’s sovereignty and its people, and will maintain the right of self-defense. IDF soldiers will continue to vigorously defend Israeli citizens against attacks by terrorist organizations financed by Iran, which declares its intention to destroy Israel” said Netanyahu. (The Times of Israel, February 28)