The Blame Game

The blame-game starts early on, - with Adam and Eve. They begin their lives in the Garden of Eden. There, G-D provides for all their needs, in return for which He imposes some commandments. One of them was not to eat from the tree of good and evil.


So now appears the Devil in form of a serpent. He talks Eve into trying the fruit from the forbidden tree. You know the story. She eats of the tree’s fruit and gives a fruit to Adam, who eats it as well.

Soon after that, G-D calls out to them and asks Adam if he ate from the forbidden fruit.

Now we encounter the age-old problem; the inability of most people to acknowledge their guilt forthrightly but, instead, to “scapegoat” someone or something else. Adam blames Eve, and Eve blames the serpent.

There is no group in the world that has been the target of as many twisted and ludicrous accusations as the Jews.

Jews were blamed for the death of Jesus. The fact that the Temple high priest was an appointee of the Romans, put there to protect Roman interests, was ignored. The crucifixion was not a Jewish, but a Roman punishment, reserved exclusively for those guilty of crimes against the empire, in accordance with Roman (not Jewish) laws. The actual reason for the execution was the fact that Jesus talked of his kingdom (against Caesar).

Tens of millions of European Christians once believed – and tens of millions of Muslims believe today – that Jews kidnap and slaughter non-Jewish children before Passover to use their blood for baking matzo.

Vast numbers of Europeans believed that Jews caused the Plague.

Much of France believed that the near-bankruptcy brought on by its failure to build the Panama Canal was caused by the Jews.

The great majority of Arabs and tens of millions of Muslims believe that the Jews (i.e., Israel) are responsible for the poverty, tyranny, absence of freedom and brutality that pervade the Arab world.

Lately, Jews have even been blamed for shark attacks in Egypt.

So, why do the nations always blame the Jews? Why do the nations hate Israel?

There is a very simple explanation to this question. The Jewish people are physical proof of the existence of G-d. The nations hate G-D. Because they hate G-D, they also hate his word, the Torah, and his people, the Jews. After all, there is nothing quite so upsetting to the post-modern ear, as to hear of a universal standard of truth or a "chosen people." It is this very fact which causes so many to hate the Jews. In this modern age of computers and cell phones we tend to forget and deny the concept of Creation. People have begun to believe that they are the creators and able to control what happens in the world. Even among the Jewish People there are those who prefer not to think about G-D. The very idea of a Jewish State - especially one located in the ancient Land of Israel - forces even atheists to take notice.

Jews remind the sinful world of G-D’s rule, and of His laws. People today hate these ideas. Thus we see that anti-Semitism, at its heart, is anti-God and anti-Torah.

However, there's only so long we can get away with putting the blame on someone else. Eventually, G-D himself will force the nations of world to face the consequences of their behavior.

Confused about Zionism?

During an interview with NBC News’ Andrea Mitchell, September 2010, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad blamed “Zionists” for fostering hostility between the United States and Iran. Muslims generally also accuse the Zionist regime of conducting terrorist activities in the US and around the world, while blaming the Muslims for it.

Too many people in this world have turned on Israel and Zionism with a vengeance.

Palestinians and their supporters have cleverly hijacked the definition of Zionism, and equated it with terrorism. Israel-bashing has become great sport, and even though words may not kill, they create increased confusion among uninformed Westerners.

So what exactly is Zionism? Who is a Zionist?

Zion (ציון‎) is a term that most often refers to Jerusalem and - by extension - the Biblical Land of Israel. The name Zion appears 154 times in the Tanakh (Hebrew Bible), texts dating back almost three millennia. It referred to a specific mountain near Jerusalem (Mount Zion), on which stood a Jebusite fortress of the same name that was conquered by David and was named the City of David. The term Zion came therefore to designate the area of Jerusalem where the fortress stood, and later became a metonym for Solomon's Temple. Zion was eventually used as a name for the city of Jerusalem, the land of Judah, and the people of Israel as a whole.

It is hard to tell the story of Zionism without going back to “lech lecha,” Abraham’s charge in Genesis to “go forth” to a new land, the land of Israel. Every time the Jews were forced to leave the Land, they started yearning to return to their beloved city, Jerusalem. You find some examples in the book of Psalms, which have been frequently recited and even remembered in song lyrics. That’s why the Palestinians didn’t want Boney M. to sing "By the rivers of Babylon, there we sat down, ye-eah, we wept, when we remembered Zion." (Psalms 137:1) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nm1g8FFRArc. The aspiration of returning to their homeland was held by Jews exiled to Babylon some 2,500 years ago - a hope which subsequently became a reality.

Zionism is therefore nothing else than the yearning of the Jewish people to return to their homeland and the resumption of Jewish sovereignty in the Land of Israel. The yearning to return to Zion (biblical term for both the Land of Israel and Jerusalem) has been the cornerstone of Jewish religious life since the Jewish exile from the land two thousand years ago, and is embedded in Jewish prayer, ritual, literature and culture.

The modern term “Zionism” was coined in 1890 by Nathan Birnbaum. Modern Zionism emerged in the late 19th century in response to the violent persecution of Jews in Eastern Europe, anti-Semitism in Western Europe. It is the Jewish national movement of rebirth and renewal in the land of Israel - the historical birthplace of the Jewish people. Modern Zionism fused the ancient Jewish biblical and historical ties to the ancestral homeland with the modern concept of nationalism into a vision of establishing a modern Jewish state in the land of Israel.

The founder of the modern Zionist movement, Theodor Herzl, dreamed in his visionary 1896 book “The Jewish State,” of the Jewish state as a liberal model for the world. "We shall live at last as free men on our own soil, and in our own homes peacefully die,” Herzl wrote. “The world will be liberated by our freedom, enriched by our wealth, magnified by our greatness. And whatever we attempt there for our own benefit will redound mightily and beneficially to the good of all mankind." In this passage, Herzl articulated the essential Zionist message that still holds true, and that echoes in the liberal nationalism of most Western nation states – that only through self-determination can utopian ideals be achieved, that a community first must unite and protect itself before it can become a force for good.

The Land of Israel was the birthplace of the Jewish people. Zionism is based on the long connection between the Jewish people and its land, a link which began almost 4,000 years ago when Abraham settled in Canaan, later known as the Land of Israel. It was there that their spiritual identity was shaped. In Israel they first attained statehood, created cultural values of national and universal significance and gave to the world the eternal Book of Books.

There never was another state claiming Jerusalem as its capital. It is to the ancient homeland that Jews from all over the world still return to. Israel is not just another country. It is destined to become the fulfillment of Biblical destiny. Those with eyes to see can see that this is already beginning. The Jewish People have begun to return home from all over the world. The only peace process that will work is when Israel decides to become a nation that stands alone with her G-d.

"This country exists as the fulfillment of a promise made by G-d Himself. It would be ridiculous to ask it to account for its legitimacy."-- Golda Meir, Le Monde, 15 October 1971

Zionism is not a political movement, it’s not a terrorist organization; - it’s a move of G-D among his people!

Koran: Allah (G-d) Ordered Jews into Eretz-Israel!

If Hamas, Hezbollah and 'the rest' are fighting a Holy Jihad against the infidel invader then what do they make of the following passages from the Koran? The Pan-Islamists, from Ahmadinejad, to Haniya, Nassrallah make claims that the Jews are invaders. Some have even made claims that Jews never even existed upon the land and that there is no religious link between the Jews and Jerusalem (hmm... wasn't Jesus a Jew? Didn't Mohammed himself fight the Jews of Medina?) or any part of Israel... At the same time Mohammed was honest and acknowledged the special relationship of the Jewish people with G-d and the land He gave them:

[Sura 5:20] Recall that Moses said to his people (the Jews), "O my people, remember GOD's blessings upon you: He appointed prophets from among you, made you kings, and granted you what He never granted any other people."

[Sura 5:21] "O my people, enter the holy land (Israel) that GOD has decreed for you, and do not rebel, lest you become losers."

Later in the Koran, in order to make it clear and leave no doubts that the Jewish G-d had given ownership of the land to and set the mission of the Jews, Mohammed took additional time to repeat the writing of the Torah in Sura 7 about the Jews and Moses:

[Sura 7:137] "We let the oppressed people inherit the land, east and west, and we blessed it. The blessed commands of your Lord were thus fulfilled for the Children of Israel, to reward them for their steadfastness, and we annihilated the works of Pharaoh and his people and everything they harvested."

[Sura 7:144] He said, "O Moses, I have chosen you (the Jews), out of all the people, with My messages and by speaking to you. Therefore, take what I have given you and be appreciative."

Therefore, even according to the Koran, the prophet Mohammed's writings, the Jews were ordered into Eretz-Israel by Allah (G-d)! What is shocking is that most Muslims have never heard of it and never were taught these passages by their mullahs! These parts of the Koran have also been deliberately removed from any discussion of Islamic doctrine by not just Muslim but also Western Islamic scholars!

Why Do The Nations Conspire Against Israel?

Thousands of years ago the psalmist asked: “Why are the nations in an uproar, the peoples grumbling in vain? The earth’s kings are taking positions, leaders conspiring together, against Adonai and His anointed.” (Psalm 2:1-2) –Jews have asked this question every year since that time.

The psalm hints of another source for the ancient hatred that has always plagued the Jewish people. Anti-Semitism is far too ancient, too persistent, too well organized to have its origins in the mind of man, because it is the longest and deepest hatred of human history.

So, why do the nations always plot against the Jews? Why do the nations hate Israel?

The Jewish people’s existence defies all logic. They should have disappeared thousands of years ago. The most powerful nations in every generation planned their destruction, yet they have all disappeared and the tiny Jewish nation is still around.

The return of the Jews to their ancient Jewish homeland can’t be explained in logical terms. It is an event which was predicted thousands of years ago, yet it could not have happened logically. Jews from all over the world have been streaming into Israel. They rejuvenated their ancient language and fended off enemies who outnumbered them.

Today those enemies continue to seek their destruction. Israelis have been murdered by suicide bombers and rock throwers. They are presently under threat of nuclear attack. As if that wasn’t enough, Israel’s leaders insist upon pretending that they can live in peace with those who seek their destruction. Any other such nation would have perished long ago. Yet Israel grows and thrives. All of this is in defiance of logic.

We see a fulfillment of biblical Balaam's prophecy: "It is a people that shall dwell alone, and shall not be reckoned among the nations."(Numbers 23:9) The nation of Israel is not considered as part of the family of nations – when all nations are listed and arranged according to geographical affiliation – some in Europe, others in Asia and others in Africa – the Israeli nation is left outside.

There is a very simple explanation to this question. The Jewish people are physical proof of the existence of G-d. The nations hate G-D. Because they hate G-D, they also hate his word, the Torah, and his people, the Jews. After all, there is nothing quite so upsetting to the post-modern ear, as to hear of a universal standard of truth or a "chosen people." It is this very fact which causes so many to hate the Jews. In this modern age of computers and cell phones we tend to forget and deny the concept of Creation. People have begun to believe that they are the creators and able to control what happens in the world. Even among the Jewish People there are those who prefer not to think about G-D. The very idea of a Jewish State - especially one located in the ancient Land of Israel - forces even atheists to take notice.

Israel reminds the sinful world of G-D’s rule, and of His laws. People today hate these ideas. Thus we see that anti-Semitism, at its heart, is anti-God and anti-Torah.

No other country in the world would as much as suggest building a new county upon its own soil, especially for enemies who seek its destruction. Israel’s leaders have fallen into a trap of their own making by engaging in a so-called “peace process” which, in fact, is a process of self destruction.

Yet, despite these leaders, and despite the overwhelming number of enemies who actively seek Israel’s destruction, the Jewish State continues not merely to exist, but to grow and thrive! This too is clear proof of Divine intervention. There is simply no other explanation.

No power on Earth can destroy Israel. Those who seek her destruction will themselves be destroyed.

The world, apart from Israel and G-D’s word, is lost and doomed. He alone will bring redemption and peace to Israel, and no power on Earth can prevent His Word from coming to pass.

The Silent Exodus

Pierre Rehov’s Middle East Documentary

Silent Exodus was selected at the International Human Rights Film Festival of Paris (2004) and presented at the UN Geneva Human Rights Annual Convention (2004)

In 1948 nearly one million Jews lived in Arab lands. But In barely twenty years, they have become forgotten fugitives, expelled from their native lands, forgotten by history and where the victims themselves have hidden their fate under a cloak of silence.

A people whom legend have always associated with "wandering" many of these Jews from Arab lands had lived there for thousands of years and accepted their fate, through good times and bad times.

But 1948, the beginning of their exodus, also saw the birth of the State of Israel.

And, while the Arab armies were preparing to invade the young refugee-country, the survivors of the Shoah were piling up in rickety boats. Meanwhile a few hundred thousand Arabs from Palestine were getting ready to flee their homes, convinced that they would return as winners and conquerors.

Soon - by a terrible twist of fate they, as well, began to fill up refugee camps and passed on their refugee status to new generations.

The Jews, however, did not receive refugee status.

They had just rediscovered the land of their birthright.

And if they came from Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia, Libya, Egypt, Syria, Iraq or from Yemen, if they had lost everything, even their relatives and their cemeteries, they were ready to rebuild their lives in the West and for many - in Israel - and try to forget their past.

Without ever asking for compensation or the right of return, or even wishing that their story be told...

Here is the trailer for the superb filmmaker Pierre Rehov's Silent Exodus. Silent Exodus was selected at the International Human Rights Film Festival of Paris in 2004 and presented at the UN Geneva Human Rights Annual Convention that same year.

http://www.jihadwatch.org/archives/025195.php

Fighters' Jewish Spirit Returns

Tevet 19, 5769, 15 January 09 11:53by IsraelNN Staff
(IsraelNN.com)

An IDF rabbi shared this personal testimony...

I had the privilege this week [the week before the ground offensive into Gaza - ed.] of accompanying the Golani Brigade's Regiment 12 soldiers. I am the regiment’s rabbi, in reserves, and I was called up to serve just like the all the rest, to “aid Israel at its time of tribulation.”

As a long-time ba'al-teshuvah [returnee to observant Judaism], a rabbi in a yeshiva who usually walks around wearing a jacket and hat, I now had a major change of atmosphere: my black “uniform” became one of dusty dark green, the hubbub of the Torah study hall was replaced by not-so-pleasing army slang, and my wife's delicious food was given up for the “delicacies” of the mess hall, most of which I don’t eat because of one stringency or another.

We spent most of the week in wet tents, with the terrible cold preventing me from sleeping at night. (I apparently wasn’t working as hard as the other soldiers, because they fell asleep the second they hit the pillow.)

My work, as an official of the Army Rabbinate, was to give encouragement and strength to the soldiers, give out Books of Psalms [Tehillim] and distribute special prayers for those who go out to battle.

Psalms for AllAnd what did I discover down there in southern Israel? My brothers! The Golanchiks (Golani Brigade soldiers), about to go out to war, want to hold on to the Rock of Israel! There wasn’t a soldier there who didn’t equip himself with a Tehillim in his pocket or combat vest - but the big surprise we had was when we gave out tzitzit [four-cornered shirt with the required ritual fringes attached]. Usually only the yeshiva guys take them, but this time, every soldier there seemed to want one!

“Rabbi, bring me some tzitzit, my whole tent wants.” “Hey, achi [my brother], take one of these, it’s better than the ceramic vest!” These were the types of calls we kept hearing over and over. Every package of tzizit that we opened was snatched up within seconds.
There was one young fighter who came to the synagogue whose face fell when he heard that there were no tzitzit left. He was totally bereft, until one of the officers who wasn’t going out to battle took off his own tzitzit and gave it to him, saying, “Take it, achi (in the Golani you can’t say something without achi), you need it now more than I do.”

Email readers: Click here to watch video of tzitzit distribution in the IDF organized by Kulanuachim

The Ma'ariv evening prayer of Friday night, Parashat Vayigash, was simply unbelievable. The Rabbinate realized that the synagogue was too small to fit all the hundreds of soldiers, and so it turned the soccer field into an impromptu synagogue, with prayerbooks, Holy Ark, and everything else.

Whoever did not take part in that Kabbalat Shabbat [Sabbath Welcoming] service, is like one who never took part in a Kabbalat Shabbat service in his life! Almost the entire Golani Brigade, officers and soldiers, yelling out the Kaddish and Tehillim prayers. If it wasn’t for the uniform I was wearing, I could have almost thought that I was at a Yom Kippur service in one of the large yeshivot!

No Questions AskedOur loving Father, too, was there, enjoying every minute of His sons gathering around Him. Our Father doesn’t ask, “Where have you been until now? Why do you remember Me just when you go out to war?” He welcomes all His children and embraces them with love.

After the Sabbath meal, held in an atmosphere of a great “high,” we were privileged to be able to hold an Oneg Shabbat for the soldiers. Chief IDF Rabbi Avi Ronsky was with us the whole Sabbath, and he warmed our hearts with stories of the Nation of Israel, on compassion, on brotherly love, and more. We sat outside with cake and sunflower seeds in the cold, but inside our hearts it was warm.

During the Sabbath, we had to travel to the places from where the soldiers would leave for Gaza. We arrived and the soldiers were imbued with combat spirit, getting ready, trying to get in a last cigarette. Many soldiers tried very hard not to smoke that Sabbath, after I explained to them the importance of observing the Sabbath. They would come up to me every five minutes and ask if the Sabbath had ended yet.

We prayed Ma'ariv there, recited Havdalah [the Sabbath-ending blessing] over grape juice, a lighter [instead of a candle] and an orange [in place of spices]. And then it was time to go in. The Regiment Commander gathered everyone for last-minute words of strength, and explained to them about the “corrective experience” we were about to impart to the enemy.

When he finished, the Deputy Commander read aloud the prayer before going out to battle. “Repeat after me,” he ordered, and a whole regiment of hundreds of soldiers yelled out, “Ana Hashem hoshia na! Ana Hashem hatzlicha na! [O G-d, save us! O G-d, grant us success!]” After the prayer, the Deputy Commander asked me to blow the Shofar, just as thousands of years ago when we conquered the Holy Land.

Perfect CoordinationThough I’ve blown the Shofar in public before, this particular time was something that will remain with me my whole life. And then, as if I and the Israel Air Force were in perfect coordination, the very second that I finished blowing the Shofar, our planes bombed the enemy area, as if it were a signal to begin the ground offensive.

The soldiers lined up in two columns, and as I parted from them with handshakes, I thought to myself, “What a special nation we have! This is how a Jewish army looks as it goes out to war – not with boastful ‘We will win’ stickers, but rather ‘We will win with G-d’s help.’”

No DisputeI will just end by saying that where I live in Modi'in Illit, we have a clever interpretation of the verse ‘G-d’s voice is powerful’: The word for 'power' is spelled with the letters kaf and chet, which we say are the initials of kova and chalifa [hat and suit], our usual garb. But as of this week, we now know that they are also the initials of the kumtah chumah [brown beret] worn by the Golani soldiers. There, too, the voice of G-d is heard – and “lo pligi” (there is no argument between the two, both are right).

translated by Hillel Fendel
http://www.israelnationalnews.com/
© Copyright IsraelNationalNews.com

Subscribe to the free Daily Israel Report - sub.israelnn.com

Either Fight Islamic Terror Or Submit To It

After seven years of bombardment from Gaza, the Israeli government finally took action to stop Hamas who were once a small terrorist group, but today a 20,000 strong, well trained army, with weapons supplied by Iran.

Before Israel hit Hamas, there were months - even years - of intelligent gathering in order to not hit civilians or as little civilian collateral damage as possible. “Israel is trying to avoid civilian casualties”, Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni told reporters Monday, while "Hamas is looking for children to kill. Hamas is targeting deliberately kindergartens and schools and citizens and civilians because this is according to their values. Our values are completely different. We are trying to target Hamas, which hides among civilians," Livni said.

No other governments in the world that would try as hard as Israel to not kill civilians.
But when you have a terrorist group that hides in crowded populations and shoots missiles from back-yards, school-yards and mosques, it is not so easy to go after them without some collateral damage.

Yet, the anti-semitic world-news agencies are reporting that these terrible Jews are killing “Palestinian children” in Gaza. For seven years Palestinians have been targeting the civilian population with no out-cries from the world’s media. When Israeli children were blown to pieces and baby body parts were scattered across the streets of Israel’s cities there was no out-cry. - Is Jewish life so cheap that the world doesn’t care how they are treated or murdered?

Yesterday was a day full of explosions on both sides of the border. Tank fire and jets flying overhead can be a bit nerve-wracking, to say the least.

A friend wrote: "I am staying at a bomb shelter.….I
realize more and more that I am not in control of my life and I am thankful that
G-d is.”

After the air raids that have killed over 200 Hamas terrorists, Israelis are faced with the decision of going back into Gaza with ground troops, knowing that many lives will be lost as these blood thirsty terrorists have booby-trapped the side of roads and buildings throughout the Gaza strip.

The strikes have driven Hamas leaders into hiding and appear to have gravely damaged the organization's ability to launch rockets, but barrages continued. Sirens warning of incoming rockets sent Israelis scrambling for cover throughout the day.

Hamas terrorists have shown no signs of surrendering their vicious, evil war against the Jews of Israel. On Monday, at least 50 rockets and missiles had been fired from Gaza at the Israeli towns of Sderot, Ashkelon and Ashdod. Israeli military forces, meanwhile, continue to pummel Hamas headquarters, rocket launching pads, and other military infrastructure.

The deputy chief of staff of the IDF is warning Israelis that, "We are just at the beginning of the battle, this will not be hasty. The worst is not behind us -- it is still ahead of us, and we should be prepared for this. Our resilience will be determined by the functioning of the authority and the way the civilians are protected."

Did you know that Hamas legislators marked the Christmas season by passing a Shari'a criminal code for the Palestinian Authority? Among other things, it legalizes crucifixion!!

Hamas's endorsement of nailing enemies of Islam to crosses came at the same time it renewed its Jihad. Here, too, Hamas wanted to make sure that Christians didn't feel neglected as its fighters launched missiles at Jewish day care centers and schools. So on Wednesday, Hamas lobbed a mortar shell at the Erez crossing point into Israel just as a group of Gazan Christians were standing on line waiting to travel to Bethlehem for Christmas.

There is a great deal of ignorance in the West about what the likes of Ahmadinejad and his colleagues in Iran, Syria, Hizbullah and Hamas stand for. But this isn't their fault. They tell us every day that they seek the destruction of the Jews and the domination of the West in the name of Islam. And every day they take actions that they believe advance their goals.The reason that the West remains ignorant of the views and goals of the likes of Hamas and Iran is not that the latter have hidden their views and goals. It is because the leading political leaders and foreign policy practitioners in the West refuse to listen to them and deny the significance of their actions.

Please pray for the half million Israelis living within rocket and missile range of Gaza. They and their children have no idea what today and tomorrow hold.

Keep in mind that this is not just a fight for Israel but for the rest of the civilized world, - for Islam has declared a Jihad against the non-Islamic world. It’s not just an ideology, but an evil spirit in the world today.

G-D requires us to fight against evil, and to resist it at all levels. Islam translated is (submission) and to not fight Islamic terror is to submit to it!

Good Night Irene and Thank You

In the fall of 1999, Mr. Conard, a school teacher, encouraged students to work on a year-long National History Day project under the classroom motto, “He who changes one person, changes the world entire”.

Four girls accepted the challenge. Mr. Conard showed them a short clipping from a March 1994 issue of News and World Report, which said, 'Irena Sendler saved 2,500 children from the Warsaw Ghetto in 1942-43'. He told the girls the article might be a typographical error, since he had not heard of this woman or story. The four young students from Kansas began their research, and discovered a Catholic woman, who saved Jewish children.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OVw1PANUcdg

Irena Sendler – a white-haired, gentle and courageous woman - passed away on Monday May 12th, 2008. Who was she?

Her story almost went unnoticed - an unfamiliar name to most people - but this remarkable woman defied the Nazis and saved 2,500 Jewish children by smuggling them out of the Warsaw Ghetto. - Irena Sendler was born in 1910 in Otwock, a town some 15 miles southeast of Warsaw. She was greatly influenced by her father, a doctor, whose patients were mostly poor Jews.

In 1939, Germany invaded Poland, and the brutality of the Nazis accelerated with murder, violence and terror. At the time, Irena was a Senior Administrator in the Warsaw Social Welfare Department, which operated the canteens in every district of the city. Previously, the canteens provided meals, financial aid, and other services for orphans, the elderly, the poor and the destitute. Now, through Irena, the canteens also provided clothing, medicine and money for the Jews. Irena and her helpers made over 3,000 false documents to help Jewish families and registered them under fictitious Christian names. To prevent inspections, the Jewish families were reported as being afflicted with such highly infectious diseases as typhus and tuberculosis, something the Nazis feared would spread beyond the ghetto. As an employee of the Social Welfare Department, she had a special permit to enter the Warsaw Ghetto, to check for signs of typhus.

Helping Jews was very risky — in German-occupied Poland, all household members were punished by death if a hidden Jew was found in their house. This punishment was more severe than those applied in other occupied European countries.

In 1942, the Nazis herded hundreds of thousands of Jews into a 16-block area that came to be known as the Warsaw Ghetto. The Ghetto was sealed and the Jewish families ended up behind its walls, only to await certain death. Irena Sendler was so appalled by the conditions that she joined Zegota, the Council for Aid to Jews, organized by the Polish underground resistance movement, as one of its first recruits and directed the efforts to rescue Jewish children (under her cover name Jolanta).

To be able to enter the Ghetto legally, Irena managed to be issued a pass from Warsaw’s Epidemic Control Department and she visited the Ghetto daily, reestablished contacts and brought food, medicines and clothing. But because 5,000 people were dying a month from starvation and disease in the Ghetto, she decided to help the Jewish children to get out. For Irena Sendler, a young mother herself, persuading parents to part with their children was in itself a horrendous task. Finding families willing to shelter the children, and thereby willing to risk their life if the Nazis ever found out, was also not easy.
During her visits, she wore a star armband as a sign of her solidarity to Jews, and began smuggling children out in an ambulance. She recruited at least one person from each of the ten centers of the Social Welfare Department. With their help, she issued hundreds of false documents with forged signatures. Irena Sendler successfully smuggled almost 2,500 Jewish children to safety and gave them temporary new identities.

Under the pretext of conducting inspections of sanitary conditions during a typhoid outbreak, the children were given false identities and placed in homes, orphanages and convents. Some children were taken out in gunnysacks or body bags. Some were buried inside loads of goods. A mechanic took a baby out in his toolbox. Some kids were carried out in potato sacks, others were placed in coffins, and some were disguised as packages. She also used the old courthouse of the edge of the Warsaw Ghetto (still standing) as one of the main routes of smuggling children out. The children were placed with Polish families, the Warsaw orphanage of the Sisters of the Family of Mary, or Catholic convents at Turkowice and Chotomów. Some were smuggled to priests in parish rectories where they could be further hidden. They entered a Catholic church in the Ghetto which had two entrances. One entrance opened into the Ghetto, the other opened into the Aryan side of Warsaw. They entered the church as Jews and exited as Christians. Irena had a remarkable record of cooperation when placing the youngsters: "No one ever refused to take a child from me," she said.
“Can you guarantee they will live?'" Irena later recalled the distraught parents asking. But she could only guarantee they would die if they stayed. "In my dreams," she said, "I still hear the cries when they left their parents."

Irena Sendler carefully noted, in coded form, the children’s original names and their new identities. She kept the only record of their true identities in jars buried beneath an apple tree in a neighbor's back yard, across the street from German barracks, hoping she could someday dig up the jars, locate the children and inform them of their past. - In all, the jars contained the names of 2,500 children ...

She hid lists of their names in jars, in order to keep track of their original and new identities. Żegota assured the children that, when the war was over, they must be returned to Jewish relatives.

In 1943, Sendler was arrested by the Gestapo, severely tortured, and sentenced to death. Żegota saved her by bribing German guards on the way to her execution. She was left in the woods, unconscious and with broken arms and legs. She was listed on public bulletin boards as among those executed. But the Nazis became aware of Irena's activities, and on October 20, 1943 she was arrested, imprisoned and tortured by the Gestapo, who broke her feet and legs. She ended up in the Pawiak Prison, but no one could break her spirit. Though she was the only one who knew the names and addresses of the families sheltering the Jewish children, she withstood the torture that crippled her for life refusing to betray either her associates or any of the Jewish children in hiding. Sentenced to death, Irena was saved at the last minute when Zegota members bribed one of the Gestapo agents to halt the execution. She escaped from prison but for the rest of the war she was pursued by the Nazis.After the war she dug up the jars and used the notes to track down the 2,500 children she placed with adoptive families and to reunite them with relatives scattered across Europe. However, almost all the children's parents had died at the Treblinka extermination camp.

But most lost their families during the Holocaust in Nazi death camps. The children had known her only by her code name Jolanta.
But years later, after she was honored for her wartime work, her picture appeared in a newspaper. "A man, a painter, telephoned me," said Sendler, "`I remember your face,' he said. `It was you who took me out of the ghetto.' I had many calls like that!"

Irena Sendler did not think of herself as a hero. She claimed no credit for her actions. "I could have done more," she said. "This regret will follow me to my death."

The http://www.irenasendler.org/ web site tells more about Irena's life (under home page and additional information). The Life in a Jar students who brought her story to worldwide attention, continue to share her legacy and the play (Life in a Jar) to people all over the world.

The Pharaoh Conspiracy

23 Nissan 5768, 28 April 08 08:39by מתוך הבלוג "The Tamar Yonah Show" - Tamar Yonah

(IsraelNN.com) What? Not ANOTHER conspiracy! Yes, my friends, as we delve into the Passover story, we read how Pharoah felt threatened by the Jews, and decided to act treacherously with them. “He said to his people, “Behold! The people, the Children of Israel, are more numerous and stronger than we. Come, let us deal wisely with them…” Exodus 1: 9-10

You see, even in those days, a Pharaoh wasn’t able to do whatever he wanted. Political correctness existed in that time as well. Pharaoh would have had a very hard time having his soldiers commit genocide against the Jewish population who had flourished in Egypt and grew to be a strong part of Egyptian society. And let us not forget that a Jew, Joseph, was the prime minister of all of Egypt, so the Jews had it 'really made', much more so even, than Jews in America today.

"Come, let us deal wisely with them. Let us amputate the Land of Israel, divide Jerusalem, and plant a terror state in its belly, and we will call it 'peace'."
Yet there were those that hated the Jews. They were suspicious of this people who came down to Egypt and prospered so well. “Those Jews," they stated, "we open our doors to them and they become even greater than us.”

And so a new king arose over Egypt, one who did not know Joseph. -They apparently forgot about the Jew Joseph who saved the Egyptians from sarving to death during their 7 year famine. And so this new Pharaoh called a meeting, not unlike the Nazi's Wannsee Conference where they organized to plan the extermination of the Jewish People in Europe.

Pharaoh said to his ministers: “Come, let us deal wisely with them’. Pharaoh had to devise a plan where he could squash out the Jews without the press writing horrible headlines about him and his administration. Of course I write this example in jest, but there was too much of a chance that his people wouldn’t cooperate, nor would the Jews themselves cooperate. And so Pharaoh ‘dealt wisely’. He conspired to enslave the Jews -with the cooperation of all.
Our sages state that Pharaoh’s treacherous solution to the ‘Jewish problem’ was to deceive the Jews into showing their patriotism by building cities to safeguard the country’s wealth. As the Midrash teaches, Pharaoh set the example by joining the labor force to symbolize that everyone must help Egypt in its time of need. Once the Jewish volunteers were mobilized, in actuality donning their own chains - it was easy for the next step, which was to enslave them.

Next week, Pharaoh Bush will be coming to Israel. His arrival should be well prepared for, with a strong public stance stating where the red lines are and what lines he cannot cross over when he is here. But we know what the agenda is. We know that Bush is coming here not just for a 60 year birthday party of the Modern State of Israel, but in fact, he is coming in order to deal wisely with us. Behind the handshakes, photo ops and smiles, he is pushing hard for the establishment of a Palestinian terror state carved out of the belly of Israel, before the end of his term is up. He wants to wrest the Jewish people’s land, and hand it to her enemies. He calls this ‘peace’ and he deals wisely with us. Jews are being shot, shelled and bombed, and he tells us that this is the right way to end the bloodshed. He is dealing wisely with us.

Jews in Israel are holding the fort, building new communities, and keeping the land alive with Jewish life. Will our brothers who are still embeded across the sea do their small part? Will American Jewish organizations be bold enough to write a public letter to their president stating firmly their objections to the division of Israel and Jerusalem? Will Jews in America sit by idly as their president comes to Israel demanding an end to Jewish building in our Biblical homeland, the uprooting of Jewish communities and the arming and training of our enemies?

If Jews in America truly believe they enjoy more freedom than we do here in Israel, will they be brave enough to march in the streets, protest, demonstrate and otherwise send a strong message, “No dividing the Land of Israel”, “No to an Arab Palestinian Terror State.” Or, will they sit quietly in their living rooms, afraid of being accused of dual loyalty, especially after the arrest of Ben-Ami Kadish? Are the Jews in America really as free and protected as they believe, or are they also part of the Pharaoh conspiracy, thinking they are good patriotic Americans/Egyptians yet are truly salves to their own red-white-and-blue master?

http://www.israelnationalnews.com/
© Copyright IsraelNationalNews.com