Fox News and other far-right media sites and politicians have railed for years about the “War on Christmas” supposedly waged by atheists, liberals and other enemies of the Judeo-Christian tradition. But there is a far more virulent enemy of Christmas and Christianity in our midst. No, you won’t find him in a Muslim country, the demon du jour of Donald Trump and the far-right.
Instead, you will find him in the Holy Land, Israel, the birthplace of Christianity. He is Bentzi Gopstein, leader of a Jewish fascist group, Lehava. In his past, he’s been accused of murdering an Arab couple a week after the assassination of his mentor, Meir Kahane. No charges were ever brought against him for that crime. Like white supremacists and Kahane himself, Gopstein has adopted fighting Jewish-Arab miscegenation as his political mantra.
Lehava administers a hostel supported with $120,000 in government funding for “wayward women” who’ve supposedly left relationships with Arab men. In Knesset hearings, Gopstein and his political supporters have cried rivers of tears about impressionable Jewish women being lured into lives of sexual slavery by Arab men who tempt them. They offer reams of claims about the severity of the problem, but never any firm statistics. Nor does anyone ever offer a skeptical view on the matter.
In the past year, Gopstein has expanded his attack to include Christianity as well. All of it. He called for the banning of Christianity and the burning down of churches and…lo and behold, a week later the Church of Loaves and Fishes was nearly burned to the ground. Though arrests were made, no one has been charged for the crime, a standard outcome in Israeli police investigations unless massive political pressure is mounted to lay charges and prosecution. Jewish terror even co-opts the security apparatus.
This week, just in time for Christmas, Gopstein let loose his latest barrage against the Church. It’s a memorable screed called Defeating the Vampire, combining overwrought rhetoric with a largely-fictional account of Jewish history:
In recent days, I’ve walked through this land [of Israel] feeling a sense of real disquiet. I’m not talking about the lack of personal security that derives from a government that is impotent against the Arab enemy…but rather a lack of spiritual security, a destruction of the fortress, a disintegration of the Jewish people’s line of defense against our most deadly enemy of the past hundreds of years: the Church.
He proceeds to outline the ways in which Christianity has allegedly attempted to exterminate the Jewish people:
Against this [the Church’s] unimaginable power stood the Jewish people like a poor sheep surrounded by seventy wolves; like easy prey before all those bloodthirsty animals. The history of the Jews of Europe…is written in the blood of millions–from the cruel Crusades in which entire [Jewish] communities were wiped out, to pogroms throughout the continent [sic], to countless blood libels, mass expulsions from England, France, Spain and Portugal–all of them were only stations along a cruel journey which our people suffered in Christian Europe. A journey which reached its end in the smokestacks of Auschwitz, a moment over which the Vatican rubbed its hands with glee [sic].
Despite all this, the Jewish people survived…The Eternal Jew stood tall. And when the ashes of Auschwitz piled high and the blood soaked into the fetid soil of Europe–when the the desecration of God’s name [the extermination] had reached its peak…God could no longer stand it and raised up out of the smoking embers the State of Israel–a most resounding slap in the face the Church had ever endured.
What was the secret of the Eternal Jew enabling him to survive all these horrors of the Church [sic]? Without doubt, it was the burning faith in the justness of our path, the deep loathing of Christianity which every Jewish baby sucks from his mother’s milk…The children of those Jews who were burned like sacrificial sheep, founded the State of Israel, whose very being negated the Church.
…Because we maintain one of the strongest armies in the world the Church has no chance of destroying our bodies…But they place their last hope in the blood-sucking vampire: the missionaries. If they cannot kill Jews, they can still try to convert them…Stores devoted to selling evangelical literature offer their wares to all on Jerusalem’s Jaffa Road. Entire settlements are crawling with missionaries. Many businesses are run by them and serve the evangelicals, in many cases camouflaging their intent and without the knowledge of their [Jewish] employees.
That same disgust Jews felt toward Christianity, which was the only thing which saved us during our dark days in Europe, that same disgust has faded in the midst of the good life of the era of democracy. The Christian is no longer perceived as a threatening vampire, but rather as a nice tourist, friendly and a partner in the prevailing western culture we both share.
…In a few days, this cursed religion will celebrate Christmas throughout this land. To our sorrow we can feel this everywhere. You see fir trees in stores. On billboards, you can see flyers inviting the wider public to study about Christianity–right in the heart of Jerusalem.
…How could even the Orthodox and Haredi communities not have raised their voices against this? Could they too have lost the basic Jewish instinct which was the inheritance of our people for hundreds of years? Have they too become trapped in the net of democracy, free speech and the politically-correct brotherhood of man?
Christmas has no place in this our holy land. Evangelicals must not gain a footing here. Expel the vampires from our land before they once again suck our blood. We’ve already fed them enough.
For those of you who heard echoes of Nazi anti-Semitic propaganda in Gopstein’s tropes, you heard well. The notion of the Eternal Jew is of course directly appropriated from the Protocols of the Elders of Zion. But the most striking phrase was the notion that Christians are blood sucker-vampires. This is precisely the complaint that echoed in the pages of Der Shtumer: the Jews as leeches sucking the vitality from Europe. In the case of the Nazis, they were more obsessed with money and high finance, claiming Jews controlled world capital. Gopstein sees Christians sucking the blood from the millions of Jews murdered, supposedly by direct command of the Church.
Of course, much of his argument is false and fabricated. I’ve added [sic] after the ones that are the most farcical.
There will be those who argue that Gopstein is an outlier. He has nothing to do with the real Israel. Everyone sees him as a madman, etc., etc. But that is patently false.
Not only is Gopstein an accused murderer, his followers burned down a Jewish-Arab school in Jerusalem. Other disciples (either direct or indirect) burned the Church of Loaves and Fishes to the ground only a week after he issued a call to undertake such acts. These are not the acts of the sort of lone gunmen who’ve perpetrated acts of terror lately in the U.S. This is a powerful leader with a charismatic message that resonates deeply with tens or hundreds of thousands of Israelis. It is a message the Israeli political and security echelons have no interest in combatting. Despite calls from the Pope himself and Israeli human rights NGOs for his arrest, he remains free.
It’s also ironic that Israel’s increasingly authoritarian government considers legislative proposals that would force NGOs receiving foreign funding from wearing a sort of “Jewish star” like ones forced on us by the Nazis, whenever they entered the Knesset. The ironic truth is that rightist NGOs like Lehava, Honenu, Im Tirzu, NGO Monitor, and many others, probably receive far more foreign funding than left-wing NGOs. The major difference is that the latter receive donations from governments and large foundations, while the rightists receive mostly individual gifts. You may be certain that if these bills pass you will not see Ronen Shoval (Im Tirzu) or Gerald Steinberg (NGO Monitor) shuffling through the halls of the Knesset with any scarlet letter on their chests. That fate will be reserved for B’Tselem, Peace Now, New Israel Fund, and their like.
It is truly extraordinary that foreign funders embrace the hate spewed by Gopstein. He’s very cagey about where his funding comes from. One source we know for sure is the Israeli government itself. Its social welfare ministry funds projects sponsored by an NGO called Hemla. One of them is the hostel for “wayward girls” mentioned above. Gopstein is the public affairs representative for Hemla and earns a salary from it.
He’s told the media that individual donors are directed to give through the Fund for Saving the Jewish People (FSJP). One of these is the Falic family based in Hollywood, FL. This extended family owns Duty Free America, a company which owns duty-free shops around the world.
A Falic-affiliated fund donated $60,000 to FSJP. They donated more than half the funds that Bibi Netanyahu raised for his campaign in the last Likud primaries. They also donate millions to a raft of mostly GOP pro-Israel candidates.
As you can see, the Falics are not outliers. They find the doors of power open in Tel Aviv and Washington DC. They’ve also endowed Bentzi Gopstein with a seal of approval through their giving to his cause. Instead of six moves of separation from Gopstein to Netanyahu, there is now only one. He is close to the beating heart of Israeli political power.
The Falics offered this deceptive defense of their giving to journalist, Uri Blau:
I am committed to giving tzedakah to causes which I care about deeply, such as the well-being and continuity of the Jewish people and the State of Israel. I believe that it is important for Jews to be connected to our roots, our history and our homeland, and to take care of one another.
I believe in diversity, co-existence and integration, as opposed to “anti-assimilation,” but I recognize that this can occur only when each person holds strongly to his or her own ideals, ideologies, religion and convictions. As Tevye succinctly put it in Fiddler on the Roof, “As the Good Book says, ‘Each shall seek his own kind.’ In other words, a bird may love a fish, but where would they build a home together?” In summary, staying true to one’s beliefs can not only give meaning to one’s own life, but can influence the conscience of others to make more sound choices and better judgments, including living together in peace and harmony.
Though it’s touching to see Mr. Falic quote the words of Fiddler on the Roof, I note he’s compared Israeli Jews to birds of prey and Palestinians to fish, their prey. That does seem just about right, though I’m certain the speaker didn’t catch the irony. And how Palestinians are supposed to understand from this rhetoric or from Gopstein’s Nazi-like speeches that their “consciences should make better judgements…and live together [with Jews] in peace and harmony” is beyond me.
Donald Trump, Islamophobia, and Ethnic Cleansing
I recently posted about Donald Trump’s increasingly xenophobic and Islamophobic rhetoric and the tropes it shares with fascist themes. The call for closing our doors to Muslims, even those who are citizens, is extraordinary. Even more extraordinary is that such rampant racism gains him supporters, rather than destroying his campaign for the GOP presidential nomination.
Though it appears in the latest polls that even Bernie Sanders could beat Trump in a one-on-one matchup, and many Democrats relish the prospect of running against him–we should recognize Trump as a watershed candidate. Before him, those whose campaigns were largely based on themes of hate and racism were thoroughly rejected even in their party nomination contest, let alone the general election. George Wallace, while popular, was largely a fringe candidate. Barry Goldwater was trounced by Lyndon Johnson.
Trump is a different animal. He exudes hate, yet his supporters feed off it. It only makes him stronger. The rest of the country waits for a day of reckoning which never comes. His comeuppance never comes. Instead he glides through the campaign season with the cocky air of Rocky, a heavyweight boxing champ. Nothing can touch him.
Bentzi Gopstein’s call for ethnic cleansing of Christians and Palestinians from Israel mirror those of Trump here in America. Israel itself is lurching farther and farther toward fascism and outright religious hatred, if not war. Israeli extremists like him thrive on this confrontation. They know the more Jews and Arabs die the closer they are to that final battle between the forces of Light and Dark, between demons (Muslims) and angels (Jews). They know in their hearts that the Jews will win. That they will vanquish their enemies and trample them underfoot. That is the day devoutly and fervently awaited.
Gopstein and Trump represent two poles which attract. They offer the same solutions (though Trump offers them with considerably more salesmanship and panache). The outcomes of their winning their contests will be similar for America and Israel: a disaster of monumental proportions.
I have enough faith in America that it will not make this choice. About Israel, I have far less faith and hope. It is embracing Gopstein’s vision with a frightful passion. Whatever ideas of his are not yet mainstream, they will be in a month or a year. This is the same path followed by his rebbe, Meir Kahane. In the 1970s they thought him a ranting maniac. Now the maniac’s ideas trip lightly off the tongues of Israeli cabinet ministers and generals. Fascism no longer lurks in Israel’s shadows. It preens and prances through the halls of power.
“I note he’s compared Israeli Jews to birds of prey and Palestinians to fish, their prey” – how exactly did you ‘note’ that?
You are forcing so much into his words that it is impossible to take you seriously. The part about gupstein is important to read so why will you hurt your own credibility with this nonsense about Falic
Professor Leibowitz’s term “judeo nazism” seems to be increasingly more appropriate. The resemblances are uncanny. The “Blut und Boden” (blood and soil) mythology, the fear of “miscegenation”, the general racism (including inquiries into the DNA of the “Jewish race”), the contempt for and ruthless stance towards the enemy.
Christian zionism is helping this process along.
“At least one in four American Christians surveyed recently by Christianity Today magazine said that they believe it is their biblical responsibility to support the nation of Israel. … The Pew Research Center put the figure at 63 per cent among white evangelicals. Christian Zionism is pervasive within mainline American evangelical, charismatic and independent denominations including the Assemblies of God, Pentecostals and Southern Baptists, as well as many of the independent mega-churches. It is less prevalent within the historic denominations, which show a greater respect for the work of the United Nations, support for human rights, the rule of international law and empathy with the Palestinians.
…
Christian Zionism as a modern theological and political movement embraces the most extreme ideological positions of Zionism. It has become deeply detrimental to a just peace between Palestine and Israel. It propagates a worldview in which the Christian message is reduced to an ideology of empire, colonialism and militarism.
…
Burgeoning Christian Zionist organizations such as the International Christian Embassy (ICEJ), Christian Friends of Israel (CFI) and Christians United for Israel (CUFI) wield considerable influence on Capitol Hill, claiming a support base in excess of 50 million true believers. This means there are now at least ten times as many Christian Zionists as Jewish Zionists. And their European cousins are no less active in the Zionist Hasbarafia, lobbying for Israel, attacking its critics and thwarting the peace process.”
Mr. Gopstein is obviously an objectionable individual. But if he manages to drive a wedge between Jewish and Christian Zionism he has my blessing.
Israeli MKs calls Gopstein, ‘ISIS with a kippah!’
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4723692,00.html
Zionism had it’s extremist elements and, following Israel’s independence, extremist groups remain, right up till the present.
And, yet, Israel has survived them.
I concur with Arik.
Where’d you get the bird of prey bit?
Gupstein is indeed a fucking lunatic though.
Oh, and btw, his loony disciples didn’t “burn down” the school (my daughter’s school, so I should know) – they burned down one classroom. *Would* they burn down the entire school if they could? Probably. But haven’t yet.
The bird loves the fish, but the creatures must remain in their element, one in the air, the other in the water.
No birds of prey, here. Sorry.
عيد ميلاد مجيد [‘îd mîlâd majîd] Merry Christmas from occupied Palestine by Bashar Murad and rapper Muhammad Mughrabi.
‘War is over if you want to’, as someone writes at the end of the clip on the Apartheid Wall
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bf9hDuzgZNQ
“Professor Leibowitz’s term “judeo nazism” seems to be increasingly more appropriate. The resemblances are uncanny. The “Blut und Boden” (blood and soil) mythology, the fear of “miscegenation”, the general racism (including inquiries into the DNA of the “Jewish race”), the contempt for and ruthless stance towards the enemy.”
Most ‘observant’ and even non ‘observant Jews would not use Leibowitz as a paradigm for Judaism.
Whether or not you are Jewish I do not know but the paucity of your knowledge of Judaism is quite obvious.
“the fear of “miscegenation”, the general racism (including inquiries into the DNA of the “Jewish race”), the contempt for and ruthless stance towards the enemy.”
Miscegenation is a major concept/commandment in the Torah and those who take the Torah seriously and live by the Torah it is not some kind of “general racism ” but the commandment of God. Thus the Jew people have survived thru all civilizations by the merit of of not practicing miscegenation. The whole DNA fad will probably fade away as with most scientific theories eventually do.
If you are going to write about Judaism as least you should know something about it.
Just this morning I read Mondoweiss article about this scumbag, and related video of him and his followers on the occasion of his daughter’s wedding. Disgusting. Even as a lapsed Catholic, I was offended by the venom pouring out of that ugly mouth.
My question: what is the Israeli government doing to shut up this kind of xenophobe? My guess, nothing. Other than a perfuncionary
tsk-tsk, you bad boy.
italian expat:
There’s been some talk about outlawing the racist group that Gupstein is leading. Nothing has come of it – yet. I’m still hopeful, although it’s not quite clear whether outlawing a group is better or worse in terms of the ability to track what they’re doing.
@ Yosef
“Thus the Jew people have survived thru all civilizations by the merit of of not practicing miscegenation.”
That’s hilarious!!! How come Dutch Jews are blond then, African Jews are black, Chinese Jews are Chinese etc etc.
Do you really think those Ashkenazi Israeli’s (who stand out so much in appearance in the Middle East that anyone can spot them as Europeans) got their light skin and light hair and eyes by ‘divine DNA intervention’?
Seems you do not know much about Judaism’s origins and past practices.
@Yosef
Whether or not I know enough about Judaism is not to the point here. This kind of pedantry I leave to you and your fellow students of the Torah.
What is to the point is whether it is correct to state that the Israeli fear of miscegenation is redolent of Nazism.
I have two arguments for that:
1 It is racist because it does not just have to do with the usual reluctance of denominations to see their members marry “outside” but with “purity of blood” notions (that you haven’t been very successful in this regard was not for lack of trying).
2 It is not only racist but is redolent of nazism because the forces of the state are behind it: indirectly (through the prohibition of civil marriage) and directly, among other things through the cooperation of elements of the police with anti-miscegenation squads.
“Israel’s vile anti-miscegenation squads
Seth Freedman
As reported in Ha’aretz, Kiryat Gat’s state-sanctioned anti-miscegenation programme’s sole aim is preventing Jewish girls from becoming romantically involved with Israeli Bedouin:
The programme enjoys the support of the municipality and the police, and is headed by Kiryat Gat’s welfare representative, who goes to schools to warn girls of the “exploitative Arabs”. The programme uses a video entitled “Sleeping with the Enemy,” which features a local police officer and a woman from the Anti-Assimilation Department, a wing of the religious organisation Yad L’ahim, which works to prevent Jewish girls from dating Muslim men.
Many Jews in Israel and the diaspora frown upon the idea of their children marrying out of the flock, some even going as far as cutting their children out of their wills and mourning them as though they had died should they take a non-Jewish partner for a spouse. While this is by no means restricted to the Jewish faith, the idea of such proscriptions being incorporated at state level – whether against Jews, Muslims or any other category of “undesirables” – is racism reminiscent of the dark days of segregationist America and pre-enlightened European states.
This week, the Times carried an illustrative and disturbing feature on the Israeli phenomenon, demonstrating the unabashed bigotry of those behind the purity patrols:
[David’s] group, which works with police, goes by several names, including Fire for Judaism, is composed of up to 45 men and funded by private donations. Members say they are fighting a ‘growing epidemic’ of Arab-Jewish dating and spend as many hours as they can on patrol.
Similar groups have formed across the country … In Pisgat Ze’ev, the growing number of Arab-Jewish couples is seen as the result of more Jewish settlements in Arab east Jerusalem.
‘The problem is always with Jewish girls dating Arab men. The Arab guy comes and buys them things, treats them well. They fall for it. They can’t see what they are doing,’ says David.
The article goes on to describe a car chase, which ensues after David spots a “problem couple” driving in a car full of Arab men. He follows them through winding mountain roads, before taking down the car’s number plate and reporting the incident to police.
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That the police would even deign to co-operate with such poisonous and prejudiced characters and their fantasies of racial purity is indicative of the malaise gripping certain sectors of Israeli society, both at street and state level.
Whatever the more blinkered supporters of Israel’s sectarianism say, day after day more evidence piles up attesting to the shocking reality behind Israel’s mask of being a tolerant, equitable and democratic “country of all its citizens”. The likes of the modesty patrols and the anti-miscegenation squads belong in the furthest recesses of history, yet apparently the Israeli authorities are not only happy to tolerate their presence, but to actively support their work as well.”
http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2009/sep/29/israel-jewish-arab-couples
Professor Leibowitz https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zM2fXTkjU2E
@Arie
1. Jews will continue intermarry (or not) based on larger social trends, including globalization, freedom of movement, etc, unrelated to the rantings of a lunatic idiot.
2. Looking at the situation for Christians (which is the subject of the post)– the freedom of practice and social thriving is highest among for Christians in Israel in comparison to all other countries in the region, with the exception of perhaps Lebanon (which is about 35% Christian). Christians are being chased out or beheaded in Syria and Iraq, and don’t have freedom in other Arab countries.
For example, from your favorite news source:
http://www.haaretz.com/middle-east-news/1.668174
Yet you (and Richard) are focusing on the activities of a lunatic fringe in Israel as though it represents Israeli society or policy. Then reality for Christians in Israel is fine, ask any Christian.
@ Yehuda: You’re omitting one small fact. That the status of Christianity in the West Bank is quite threatened by Israeli security forces who shut down monasteries, steal their land. Not to mention the vicious campaign by Israel against the Christian Palestinian liberation NGO, SABEEL. As non-Jews, CHristians are only marginally better off than Muslims. Jews reign supreme.
Christian Palestinians are faced with the same problems as Muslim Palestinians in Israel and the occupied territories, which means that things are less than fine.
By the way, from my distance Gopstein sounds funny rather than scary, but I guess it is different when you are living close by.
@Elisabeth
Somehow the subject keeps on getting deflected to the Palestinian conflict. The accusation is about how Israeli Jews are treating Christians.
Most of the Christians (the subject of the post) from mandate Palestine live in Israel proper.
They are Israeli citizens, and as the article depicts, are thriving. They don’t leave, as do the Christians living under PA control.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christianity_in_Israel#Demographics
I leave it to you as to why.
@ Yehudah
“Looking at the situation for Christians (which is the subject of the post)– the freedom of practice and social thriving is highest among for Christians in Israel in comparison to all other countries in the region”
You don’t know what you’re talking about, you’re just dumping the usual hasbara. You’re telling us that Christians are less discriminated in the State of the Jews than in the Palestinian territoiries where the Christian community has an outstanding role in arts, economics, politics etc (the two female mayors of Bethlehem and Ramallah are both Christians), and no, it(s not due to the Israeli occupation.
“The reality for Christians in Israel is fine, ask any Christian”
Yep, I’ve done so and they (I’m talking about the Palestinian Christians, and not the Christians imported from Russia) say they’re just as discriminated as the Palestinian Muslims.
Just ask the inhabitants of Kafr Bir’im and Iqrith who’re still waiting to go back to their villages (Iqrith was destroyed on Chrismas Day 1951 in front of the inhabitants).
Zionist propagandists have no shame, thzy endorse the institutionnal discrimination all while boasting Israeli democracy, and when some of the Palestinian citizens of Israel do well, they even have the chutzpah to take credit (latest example Noel Kharman the teenage singer from Isfiya who made a mashup with Hello (Adele) and Kifak anta (Fairuz) ).
@ Yehuda
I didn’r see this “They don’t leave, as do the Christians living under PA control (….) I’ll leave it to you as why”
Wouw, Zionist propagandists really have no shame ! The Christians leave the Palestinian territories because of the occupation, they’ve been particularly touched by the Apartheid Wall in the area around Bethlehem and Beit Jala (polls all say that Christians leave due to economical hardship, and many go to Jordan, there’s a huge community of West Bank Christians in Amman).
An article by Alex Shams on Syriac Christians in Palestine, how they were expelled in 1967 to expand the Jewish Quarter in the Old City and generally on Christians in Palestine: very informative
http://www.middleeasteye.net/in-depth/features/syriac-christians-palestine-keep-hope-alive-amid-isis-uncertainty-766922617
Extract: “Christians in Syria, Jordan, Palestine, and Iraq have historically had slightly higher rates of emigration than Muslims. The communities tend to be more urbanised and more educated than average, and as a result more easily seek economic opportunities abroad.
There is another major reason that encourages Christians to emigrate that is less-discussed: Western countries are generally more welcoming to Christians applying for visas than Muslims.”
@ People who want to know about the Christians in historical Palestine (present day Israel and Palestine), the Facebook of Palestinian Christians is a must, it’s monitored by Elias Khoury, a Palestinian refugee in Lebanon, and have many article every day, mostly in Arabic but many in English too.
A letter Elias Khoury wrote to the Christians of the world a while back:
“Palestinian Christians have a message to the Christians of the World”
– suhmatiya.wordpress.com/2015/05/15/palestinian-christians-have-a-message-to-the-christians-of-the-world/
Yehuda,
“Somehow the subject keeps on getting deflected to the Palestinian conflict. The accusation is about how Israeli Jews are treating Christians.”
Most Christians in Israel & occupied territories ARE Palestinians. I am not talking about the western tourists who are flocking to Israel in the holiday season. Palestinans in both areas face all kinds of hardships because of Israeli policies towards them.
Barbar December 23, 2015, 5:13 AM
Israeli MKs calls Gopstein, ‘ISIS with a kippah!’
Zionism had it’s extremist elements and, following Israel’s independence, extremist groups remain, right up till the present.
And, yet, Israel has survived them.
Well Barbar these your extremist “groups” have turned Israel’s Jewish part to a increasing barbarian society. It is ridiculous constantly to claim, that only a few “bad Jewish/Zionist apples” are the problem, when even we outsiders can see to what Israel has developed and towards what it is developing. A combination of Germany in 30’s and some kind Klu Klux “paradise”. And this Israel will not survive, that is certain. The sad thing is that the reverse gear in this drama has disappeared. When the two state solution in reality has become impossible, what is left?
Palestinian extremists arrested for burning down West Bank Christmas tree.
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4744259,00.html
And the Palestinian Authority has promply arrested them. They are better, or at least more devoted, at protecting Christians from arson than the Israeli authorities it seems…
Benzi Gopstein’s Xmas Card
He does have a likeness to Santa Claus.
Hi there
Sorry to break into this serious discussion but …
I came across this website while trying to find some information about the song “Tzena Tzena…”
which I first heard on radio and was very moved by as a kid in London around 1950 ( ? ). I seem to remember
it was recorded by an Israeli girl. But the only recordings I can find on Google or uTube are of very
sanitised versions by American folk groups.
Sorry again to break into this , but if anybody can guide me towards a more
“authentic” recording I would be grateful.
Regards
Mike