Shlomo Linder, Viznitzer Hasid, denouncing Judeo-fascisst inciting the murder of PM Bennett
אלעד, ״בנט תיזהר רבין מחפש חבר״👇 pic.twitter.com/31pWfshjZS
— Real News IL (@RealNewsIL) May 5, 2022
Here we go again. Last month, Israel suffered four terror attacks by Palestinians over a period of three weeks in which 11 Israelis died. The attacks happened just before and during the holy month of Ramadan. Palestinians were especially aggrieved because during their holiday, Israeli settlers and their Border Police thugs invade the holy sanctum. They target Passover because it was an ancient Israelite pilgrimage festival in which worshippers traveled from across the land to the Temple and made sacrificial offerings. Though no such offerings have been made, and no Temple has existed on this site for two millennia, the settlers are not deterred.
Their invasion is meant to warn Palestinians that they claim the site for Jews and intend to build a Third Temple there. Yesterday, yet another 1,000- strong contingent of messianic zealots invaded Haram al-Sharif. This time they unfurled Israeli flags (the video shows such an incident yesterday) and sang the national anthem, HaTikvah. Its name, The Hope, is ironic because the ascendancy of settlerism dashes all hope of any peace accord between the two peoples.
Earlier today, two Palestinians targeted the central Israel ultra-Orthodox town of Elad. Three Israelis died and four were wounded. The attackers deliberately chose yesterday, Israeli Independence Day, for the attack. It was meant as an especial note of defiance by them against Israeli triumphalism, which this Israeli holiday personifies. In that regard, for many years the IDF put on a massive military parade throughout Jerusalem. When I lived there in 1979-80, I can remember the pounding thud of the tank treads on the street pavement starting in the early morning hours as they made their way to the center of the city.
After today’s attack, bloodthirsty yeshiva students gathered in Elad under the tutelage of Judeo-fascist, MK Itamar Ben Gvir, chanting for the murder of Prime Minister Naftali Bennett. In the video above they cry: “Watch out, Bennett, Rabin is looking for a partner [to keep him company–in the grave]. No amount of sorrow or even rage justifies calling for the murder of the country’s leader.
Shlomo Linder, a disciple of Viznitzer Hasidim, spoke wise and humane words in this impassioned statement, refuting the blood-curdling incitement to murder Bennett and Palestinians:
הפיגוע באלעד | תושב העיר, שלמה לינדר, בביקורת על ח”כ בן גביר: “חווינו טרגדיה קשה. החרדים מעולם לא היו בימין הקיצוני, ומגיע בן אדם להתסיס את הציבור. העדה החרדית לא מאמינה בלרצוח אחים ולא ברצח ערבים”@YoavBorowitz pic.twitter.com/6orvdd8w9B
— כאן חדשות (@kann_news) May 5, 2022
He said:
Tonight we suffered a terrible tragedy. We must not forget that Elad is a Haredi city. Haredim were never part of the extreme right. The Haredi mainstream never went to the settlements.
A guy [MK Itamar Ben Gvir] comes along from the settlements, inciting the community and the youth against Arabs. They shouted: Bennett, Rabin is looking for a friend [to keep him company in the grave]. For the Haredi community, the Torah we received on Mt. Sinai does not believe in the murder of brothers [Arabs and Jews]. It does not believe in such things. It does not believe in the murder of Arabs. Because after all, in Bnai Brak, a Haredi city, it was Arabs who stopped the attack. Ben Gvir [Kahanist MK inciting violence and hatred against Palestinians] is welcome to go back where he came from–not to come to Elad to incite our youth.
I am fighting for the city’s image. It’s important to me that people know that Elad is a Haredi city. It’s important to know that the Haredi mainstream is against fascism, against marginal phenomena, against incitement to murder. “Her [the Torah’s] ways are the ways of peace.” That is what’s agitated me. I am not a media figure nor someone used to doing interviews.
I think that when the community is hurting and in shock, with women and children sitting at home in afraid, then it’s obvious that there is fear. And it is clear the fear will last for some time. And of course, it’s much easier to incite people who are in fear and say: “Folks, let’s go murder all the Arabs.” I fear that this will lead to an unecessary wave of nationalist extremism that will drift in a direction which we Haredi Jews do not believe in.
We know that we study Torah and protect the Jewish people. But we do not call for murder and we are not murderers.
Translation is mine with assistance from Uri Horesh. As an aside, Elad was a planned city built in the 1990s as an ultra-Orthodox community. It is a few miles from what was at one time the Green Line (before Israel functionally erased it), and, according to Wikipedia, lies on the site of one of 400 Palestinian villages ethnically cleansed in 1948, Al-Muzayri’a. I’d venture a guess that you won’t find any historical markers there commemorating its existence.
Returning to the bloodlust chanting, the Shin Bet is tasked not only with protecting the prime minister, it is also tasked with monitoring, preventing and punishing Jewish terrorism. So I wonder if it will arrest every one of the potential assassins chanting for Bennett’s blood. After all, it’s likely there is at least one Yigal Amir among them.
The problem of course is that the Shin Bet is loathe to pursue Jewish terrorists. Even when they do, investigations take years, trials take years, and convictions amount to a few months in jail. Last month, 7 settlers who celebrated the murder of a Palestinian baby by stabbing its picture during a wedding celebration were convicted…seven years after the crime. They’ll get a slap on the wrist. Palestinians, of course, are treated like criminals whether they throw a rock or post a Facebook message. If they murder an Israeli they are usually murdered execution-style. Though a few live arrests have been made.
An ultra-Orthodox journalist published this powerful denunciation of the government and its ministers for their own incitement of Palestinian violence
3 ח”כים ממפלגת ראש הממשלה, תקעו אתמול אצבע בעין על הר הבית.
כל עוד אין סימטריה בין הצדדים החולקים את הארץ הזו – האחד בעל הכוח, האחר נשלט – הרי שמדובר בהזמנה לאלימות. התוצאה: 3 הרוגים באלעד.
שקד, אורבך, כלפון, הדם על הידיים שלכם. וגם שלך בנט, אם לא תבלום את מטורללי המקדש. pic.twitter.com/0KMlZxhbo8
— ישראל פריי (@freyisrael1) May 6, 2022
He tweeted:
Three MKs from the prime minister’s [Yamina] Party stuck a finger in the eye at the Temple Mount. As long as there is no symmetry between both sides disputing this land–one, the powerful, the other controlled–we are inviting more violence. The result: three dead in Elad. Shaked, Orbach, Khalfon: the blood is on your hands [for going to the “Temple Mount”]. And on Bennett’s hands if he doesn’t stop the mad men of the Temple.
In years past, in the aftermath of such terror attacks, I would write I didn’t justify violence on either side, that I denounced Palestinian violence as much as Israeli violence. But no more. As I wrote about last month’s terror attacks, for Palestinians all doors are shut. There is no point in protest. No point in being arrested. There is no point in hope. That leaves only the gun: the only language Israel understands. It understands the language because it is its native tongue: F-35s, Apache gunships, tanks, drones, Jericho ICBMs. It speaks rockets and bullets. All arrayed against its enemies, real or imagined. Israel is an armed camp, a garrison state. Armed to the teeth.
This is the state Palestinians face: one responsible for 70 years of mass violence in order to enforce its interests. One which has killed tens of thousands of Palestinians during that time. So while 11 Israelis died last month and three died today, twenty or a hundred times as many Palestinians have died at Israeli hands compared to Israelis killed by Palestinians.
There is no justice for Palestinians. There are no rights. They enjoy the right to be the underclass. That’s some right! So why is anyone shocked or surprised that hopeless young Palestinians would “take up arms against their sea of troubles?” Even worse, why would anyone express outrage at such acts? Why are pro-Israel apologists in high dudgeon over such forms of resistance?
I’m bemused by Israel’s disingenuousness in blaming Hamas or any Palestinian group for the violence:
Defense officials are pointing a finger at senior Hamas figures for inciting violence, with Yahya Sinwar, the group’s leader in Gaza, recently calling on Palestinians to commit attacks using “a gun, an ax or a knife.”
Do they think that Palestinians would not engage in these acts were it not for Hamas goading them to do so? Do they think that Palestinians would otherwise lack motivation to do so? Do they think that otherwise, Palestinians would be nice, calm, obedient peasants happy with their lot in life, satisfied with the few crumbs that drop from the Israeli table? What fools do they take us for if they believe such nonsense?
Why do we deny Palestinians the agency we accord to any other people facing similar suffering? Do we denounce Ukrainians for resisting Russian invasion? Did anyone (besides Nazis) denounce Jewish partisans during World War II? Did anyone (besides King George III) denounce the American rebels who organized an armed uprising against the Crown? Palestinians, whether they adopt violent or non-violent forms of resistance, are fully entitled to protect themselves, their families, their land, and their holy places. If Israel invades those spaces, steals that land, and kills those victims, Palestinian are fully entitled to respond in whatever form they choose. No, I will no longer temporize when it comes to Palestinian resistance. It is justified whether it is non-violent or violent.
When Israel stops murdering Palestinians and engaging in war crimes, then we can talk about Palestinians laying down arms. Till then, the bullets fly and the blood flows, on both sides.
‘…Do they think that otherwise, Palestinians would be nice, calm, obedient peasants happy with their lot in life, satisfied with the few crumbs that drop from the Israeli table?’
Is that option actually available to the Palestinians?
@ Colin: Well, maybe “the only good Arab is a dead Arab” to paraphrase Gen. Sheridan. Just sayin’
If you ask Israeli Arabs, assuming the two state solution is somehow implemented, are they ready to leave Israel to live under Palestinian rule? My guess is that most would say absolutely not.
What exactly are you basing your guess on…
Your apartheid settler colonial mindset?
@ David Allon: I’m not sure what your overall intent was here, but Israeoi Palestinians have no reason to be “ready to leave Israel.” They are Israeli citizens. Why should they leave? Unless of course the Judeo-supremacist government implements forced expulsions, which would definitely bring it to the ICC and the dock in the Hague.
The first comment by Colin discussed how happy Palestinians might be under Israeli rule.
How do I know what Palestinians think? A few years ago a proposal was raised about a two state solution, in which there is some territorial exchange, giving parts of Israel to Palestine, in exchange for some areas of the west back which will be transferred to Israel. In that discussion some of the Israeli areas to be be transferred were inn the meshulash, some areas around Wadi Arah that are populated by Israeli Arabs. The greatest outcry against this plan came from these Arabs.
@ David Allon: I think you’re missing a key issue here. No Israel Palestinians are willing to be expelled from Israel. It’s their country, their home, their citizenship. Transfer-lite is a poisonous proposal by Bennett-types who want to curry favor with the right while maintaining what little credibility they have with “moderates.”
Your use of terms like ‘invaded’, which is Hamas rhetoric, is wrong and inaccurate.
After a two-week hiatus, 950 Jews visited the Temple Mount and were quickly escorted around the site by Border Police.
Despite warnings by the Police, some visitors chanted or sang the national anthem, apparently in defiance of the Arabs also chanting nationalist slogans yelling at the Jews and police.
An Israeli flag was unfurled by visitors, but police quickly stopped that display.
Why do you peddle in photoshopped pictures of Jews wearing Israeli flags on the Temple Mount? Don’t you know that doctored photographs depicting damage to the Haram al Sharif precipitated the Arab led massacre of Jews in 1929?
Photoshopped photos are part and parcel of the ‘fake news’, social media campaign Hamas uses to incite violence and retain power.
Cynical lies, that kill and maim innocent people. Cynical lies Hamas uses in order to weaken Israel’s fragile coalition government.
@ Becky: Terms like “invaded” are widely used in media reporting, especially Palestinian or otherwise progressive sites. The usage has nothing to do with Hamas (there you go again trying to drag Hamas into every possible conversation). It is the Palestinian view of Judeo-supremacy, as represented by the tens of thousand stone worshippers who pollute Haram al-Sharif by their presence. In fact, it is racist to use Hamas as a marker to define all Palestinians. It’s akin to saying that all Jews who vote Democrat are Communists; or, worse yet, anti-Israel. Oh btw, will Muslim worshippers be welcome to recite prayers in the Kotel calling for building a mosque at the site??
950 Judeo-messianists yearning for a Third Temple and the destruction of the Noble Sanctuary were forced down the gullet of Palestinians. A bitter pill to swallow. it doesn’t matter whether they were escorted on a leisurely stroll, whether they camped there for the night, or they were whisked through. Their view of the “mitzvah” was to be physically present there. There’s no specification for how long they need to be there to get mitzvah credit.
You know as well as I that this isn’t the first time Israeli flags were unfurled there. In fact there are reports going back a decade or more of this incitement. There are literally scores if not more pictures of such defacement on the internet.
Hey, don’t look at me. I didn’t create them. In fact, if you read the Hebrew media (you apparently don’t, or at least not as thoroughly as you should) they reported the images were created by Temple activists who sought to protest the police prohibition on flying the flag there. So maybe take it up with the settler knights templar who created the fake image.
Oh nonsense. Bennett’s coalition doesn’t need Hamas to topple it. It has plenty of internal conflict, rivalry and bitterness to do it all by itself. I’m sick & tired of blaming every Israeli infirmity on Hamas. In fact, if you mention “Hamas” again in any context other than one directly related to Hamas in Gaza, I will ban you outright.
Let’s not forget also the Israel high court decision this week to ethnically cleanse 1000 Palestinians from West Bank villages. I believe the judge who made the decision is also a settler that lives in one of the many illegal settlements.
The mainstream media still refer to the raids of Al Aqua as ‘clashes’ . The Rational National YouTuber did a really great video on this a few weeks ago, and for his efforts , YouTube de- monetised his video for stating some basic truths.
Two comments.
1) Israel Frey is wrong about “three MKs” from Yamina. Shaked is not an MK. That is important when discussing a possible split in the party.
2) the reference to grind, haver, חבר, in regards to Rabin. Isn’t that what Clinton called Rabin in his eulogy? This makes the call for assassination, if possible, even stronger
Very well written Richard.
Back in the days of the apartheid colonial settler State of South Africa ( very similar to the present day supremacist colonial settler State of Israel ), the ANC and PAC as liberation entities refused to renounce violence/lay down their arms even while negotiating with the racist white regime. Up and until there was a confirmed/final agreement as to the liberation of the indigenous black peoples. So it should be for the Palestinian resistance/people.
As a footnote I would like to add that mass protests/strikes/community organization and a campaign to make the cities/towns as ungovernable as possible ( of which I happily participated in ) is what ultimately lead the racists to negotiate the demise of their system. Oh, and very much of course the sanctions and pressure from most of the international community.
According to Haaretz, Linder is no leader. Moreover, his voice does not represent the majority in Elad who welcomed the fascist Ben Gvir and chanted death to Arabs (like in Bne Brak). It is a mistake to think the ultra orthodox do not hate the Arabs. Yes, they are against Zionism, but for them the Arabs are just a means to an end, not partners for peace.
@ old Nag: As usual, the news articles to which you link do not say what you claim. The article, which appears not to be written by a Haredi Jew, says that Linder appears to represent the “older generation” of Haredim, but not the younger generation. The article does NOT say, as you claim, that Linder is not a communal leader. Next, Linder appears to be around 40 years old. I’m not sure why a 40 year old man can be said to represent only older Haredim. Third, as I said, the reporter appears not to be Haredi, so I’m not sure how he knows who is, and who isn’t a leader. Fourth, there is absolutely no proof that the “majority” of the residents “welcomed Ben Gvir.” Perhaps the majority of the poisoned minds of the yeshiva bochers welcomed him. But they are not the majority of the city. In fact, according to this source, most of the yeshiva students aren’t from Elad at all. And finally, Linder’s views are widespread among Haredim. Note the tweet from Yisrael Frey, which repeated essentially the same ideas as Linder.
Finally, on a slightly different note: after an attack on a synagogue in Kiryas Joel, the leader of that community denounced attacks on African Americans by Jewish leaders (the perpetrator of the attack was a mentally-unstable African-American). He made precisely the same points as Linder: that African-Americans are friends and allies. That relations remain strong with their community. That the Hasidim harbor no ill will to the entire African American community.
Seems to me that at least in the matter of inter-communal relations, the Haredim have much to teach the Judeo-fascists in our midst (yourself included).
In the on-going Jews’ war of colonization and aggression against the Palestinian people, Palestinian freedom fighters have struck back, killing three ultra-orthodox Jews in the town of Elad about 10 miles east of Tel Aviv. In hand-to-hand combat with knives and axes, the Palestinians attacked Jews last night (Thursday May 5) killing 3 and critically wounding 4. The two Palestinian guerrilla fighters escaped the scene of the battle and Jewish Occupation Forces have launched a huge manhunt blockading several roads in Palestine.
“..Israeli Palestinians ..”
@Richard: you are using the above term in some of your comments. Could you please elaborate on it?
Let me explain:
Is “Palestinian” a definition of race, defined by blood, or is it a statement of one’s belonging to a state?
When the issue of a 2 state solution had been discussed, it talked about Israel and Palestine. Israel being the country within the green line, Palestine comprising the west bank.
Thus in my mind people living in Israel are regarded as Israelis (consisting mainly of Israeli Jews and Israeli Arabs), while Palestinians are the ones in the occupied territories which may one day become Palestine אינשאללה.
I once ran into a person who regarded the present Israel as a temporary historical accident and kept refereeing to the all area between the river and the sea as Palestine – and its resident – Palestinians; surely you do not share his opinion?
@ Eli: Only a privileged Israeli Jew could claim that all Israelis, Jewish and Palestinian, are “Israeli.” While failing to acknowledge that all Israelis are not equal. And that the Jewish majority consistently treats the Israeli minority as alien and separate from the National consensus. When you in Israel create a single national identity that ignores or subsumes religion or ethnicity, then you can talk of “Israeli” including both Jews and Palestinians.
Not to mention that Israeli Palestinians (like African-Americans and countless other hyphenated minorities) are proud of their heritage and identity and indicate it with this hyphenated format.
What state? “Palestine?” You mean the “state” that doesn’t exist and will never exist? There is no 2 state solution. There is no Palestine. So pretending there should be no Israeli Palestinian identity because in some vague future there may be a state of Palestine is disingenuous. Till there is, there will be Israeli-Palestinians.
That’s the problem with Israeli Jews. You think what’s in “your mind” is the national consensus. But it isn’t. Unless of course you discount over 1-million of your fellow Israeli citizens who happen not to be Jewish.
Your fellow Israeli-Palestinian citizens call themselves that. THey are not “Arabs.” They do not use that term. Only Jews do. Don’t deny them their own identity. Doing so is racist, insulting and condescending.
I do not appreciate people trying to pin down my views in a way that, in their eyes, discredits me. Don’t pull that here.
I support a single state. I don’t care what you call it: Israel, Palestine, Israel-Palestine, Palestine-Israel. Feigning outrage that someone would call the territory from the river to the sea “Palestine” is again disingenuous. Israel has been calling huge swaths of sovereign territory of Syria, Lebanon and Palestine “Israel proper” for 70 years. TUrnabout’s fair play.
“…if you mention “Hamas” again in any context other than one directly related to Hamas in Gaza, I will ban you outright..”
Jeez.
Thus spake Silverstein
Can we please clarify this new rule, so commenters don’t inadvertently run afoul?
For instance, last Saturday, Yehya Sinwar, the leader of Hamas in Gaza, had warned that any further raids by the Israeli police inside the mosque compound would prompt a response, and in a fiery speech, urged members of Israel’s Arab minority to “get your cleavers, axes or knives ready”.
https://www.nytimes.com/live/2022/05/05/world/israel-attack
Lo and behold, on Thursday two terrorist teens, who probably hadn’t ever gotten their dick’s wet, got out their cleavers, axes and knives, and went to work, killing three.
So, it is obvious that Hamas doesn’t operate in a vacuum, and what’s said in Gaza, doesn’t necessarily stay in Gaza.
Additionally, Hamas has always had cells in the West Bank, and will have them far into the future.
“Hey, don’t look at me. I didn’t create them”.
Whether you created them isn’t the point, it’s that is fake, and the naive or gullible among us, may accept it a real.
“You know as well as I that this isn’t the first time Israeli flags were unfurled there”.
The video reveals that this lunatic woman smuggled the flag onto the Temple Mount by hiding it under her son’s shirt. She knew that Border Police wanted to prevent nationalistic flag displays, and used subterfuge.
And BTW, shouldn’t this holy site remains free of nationalistic, political flag waving and chanting?
Shouldn’t Jew and Muslim, respect this holy site and refrain from such conduct? I bet the majority of Jews and Muslims don’t want flags or sloganeering on the Temple Mount.
Shouldn’t Border Police evenly enforce the ban on such displays?
@ Hard Candy:
No.
Disgusting. You are disgusting. You are now permanently banned.
That’s assuming that young, aimless, unemployed, oppressed West Bank Palestinians with no known political affiliation take their orders from a guy in Gaza. BTW, Bibi Netanyahu incited the murder of Rabin with the same rhetoric. Yet no one is calling for Bibi’s murder as they’re calling for Sinwar’s. Bibi wasn’t even prosecuted for incitement. I guess what’s good for the Israeli goose isn’t good for the Palestinian gander.
Hamas’ presence in the West Bank is exceedingly weak. In fact, it has attempted to create such cells and had very little success. So again, prove to me that any of the attackers over the past month have direct connection or allegiance to Hamas. It did claim credit for one (Ariel) of the five attacks. But I have heard no confirmation of even this single one from Israeli security sources.
Ah, the old “settlers are extremist lunatics representing no one.” YOu of course conveniently neglected to deal with the reports I mentioned proving display of Israeli flags at Haram al Sharif for years. There are multiple reports. Go and read them.
Sure, when you remove the Brownshirts armed with stun grenades, tear gas, and rubber bullets from Haram al Sharif and, in particular Al Aqsa mosque, then we can talk about removing “nationaistic” symbols. Don’t forget Border Police are the ultimate expression of Israeli oppression, dominance, control, and state violence. Oh, and when Israel arrests every Israeli inciting violence, and religious desecration on Haram al Sharif and makes any organized group promoting such views illegal, then we can talk about all the other issues you disingenuously included in your shopping list of purported Palestinian offences.
Don’t make me laugh. HUndreds of Palestinians injured, one dead, thousands arrested, and the mosque trashed. And you talk about “respect?” Really.
NO, there should be no religious Jews permitted there, period. There should be no Israeli presence there at all. But when you permit a Palestinian national & religious presence at the Kotel, then we can talk.
“There should be no Israeli presence there at all. But when you permit a Palestinian national & religious presence at the Kotel, then we can talk.”
What about Western Wall, known as the Baraq Wall, doesn’t it belong to the Arabs too?
@ trouble man: The Kotel and its walls are not part of the Haram al Sharif, not part of Al Aqsa or Dome of the Rock. Hence they have no holy significance for Muslims. If they did, then you would find Muslims wanting to worship there. But they have no need to do so because their holy sites are intact and above the Kotel. Jews, at least the minority who are predisposed to visit the Kotel, have no physical building or even ruins to venerate. All that’s left to them physically are the walls.
So with a bit more nuance and a bit less gotcha-gonna-get-ya you’d actually be able to answer your own question, leading though it might have been.