There’s a famous story about the great sage Hillel the Elder.

Hillel used to earn a trepik a day, half of which he gave to the guard at the house of study and half he used to support himself and his family. One day he earned nothing and the guard would not let him in. He climbed up and sat on the skylight so that he could hear the words of the living God from Shemayah and Avtalyon. It happened that it was a Friday in the winter and the snow from the sky fell upon him. At the break of dawn, Shemaya said to Avtalyon: “My brother. Usually it is light but today it is dark. Perhaps the day is cloudy.” They looked up and saw the shape of a man against the window, and they found three cubits of snow upon him. They took off the snow, washed him, anointed him and put him by the fire. They said: “He is worthy for shabbat to be profaned for his sake.” (Yoma 35b)

When I heard this story about Doron Mahareta (the oldest student killed at Merkaz Harav last week) from Rabbi Hauer, I couldn’t help thinking about Hillel’s dedication to Torah study. When Doron originally went to Merkaz Harav he couldn’t pass the entrance exam. Instead of despairing, he asked if he could work at the Yeshiva and was given a job as a dishwasher. Doron, wasn’t just a dishwasher. With his foot in the door, he took advantage of his opportunity to ask the students about what they were learning. When he had spare time, he’d go to the Bais Medrash (study hall) and study. A year and a half later he approached the Rosh Yeshiva (the head of the Yeshiva) and asked if he could now enter the Yeshiva. After being rebuffed, he proceeded to show the Rosh Yeshiva how much he learned in his year and a half as a “dishwasher.”

The story would be incredible enough on its own if it ended there. But it didn’t.

He forced the Rosh Yeshiva into a Torah discussion; the next day, he was no longer a dish washer but a full-fledged “yeshiva bachur”.On weekends, when Doron would come home to visit his family in Ashdod, he’d spend the entire Shabbat either in the Melitzer Shul or the neighboring Gerrer shtiebel learning Shulchan Aruch and its commentaries. Three weeks ago, he finished the entire Shulchan Aruch and principle commentaries. Doron achieved in his tender 26 years what others don’t attain in 88 years.

For some perspective, the Shulchan Aruch (Code of Jewish Law) is a massive work. The average Orthodox rabbi doesn’t have to know the complete Shulchan Aruch to earn ordination.

It’s like a student who hadn’t taken pre-calculus in high school went to MIT, worked as a dishwasher and then 7 years later emerged with a Phd in Math. It takes a tremendous amount of dedication and perseverance to accomplish what Doron did. He stands as one more example of the tremendous loss suffered ten days ago when a murderer started shooting innocent young men studying.

Crossposted on Soccer Dad.

In an innocuously titled Islamic summit seeks dialogue with Christian world Reuters reports:

But, in an apparent reference to the Palestinian fight against Israel, it said terrorism should be differentiated from “legitimate resistance against foreign occupation.”As is customary at an Islamic summit, leaders of the OIC — the second largest inter-governmental bloc after the United Nations — had harsh words for Israel, condemning it for “war crimes” against Palestinian civilians.

“The conference denounces the current and increasing Israeli military campaign against the Palestinian people and the serious violation of human rights and war crimes including the killing and injuring of Palestinian civilians,” an OIC statement said.

It called Israel’s “collective punishment of civilians” a violation of international human rights law and said “the occupying forces must be held responsible for these war crimes.”

That follows up nicely on Mahmoud Abbas’s charge that Israel’s committing “ethnic cleansing” in Jerusalem. Of course this is all nonsense. The OIC of course adopts this rhetoric as a way of excusing “legitimate resistance” that in normal terms is what we call “terrorism.”

In a pointed commentary Barry Rubin points out

There is no instance I know of in which Israeli units opened unlimited fire on a crowd, even when rocks were being thrown or shots fired against them. Individual targets were picked out. Unarmed people were killed but not deliberately and in small numbers. If Israelis were as their enemies picture them to be, there would be hundreds of Palestinians killed in a single day, tens of thousands in a year.

Read the whole article. But that paragraph is important. If the charges against Israel were true, there would be many more Palestinian dead. Not just 10 or twenty more, but by orders of magnitude.

A country engaged in “ethnic cleansing” wouldn’t be allowing its hospitals to treat its enemies’ children. And it wouldn’t allow it enemies to access its medical facilities to care for women delivering babies in high risk situations. (A higher risk in this case, came not from Israel, but from Gaza.)

And of course, if this is the way Israel carries out its ethnic cleansing, it’s no surprise that

Growth rate of Arab population in city in past 40 years is double that of Jewish population, data published by Jerusalem Institute for Israel Studies reveals. In 2020, Arabs expected to constitute 40 percent of capital’s residents.

(h/t Simply Jews)

To put it mildly, if Israel is engaged in ethnic cleansing it’s might inefficient at the task.

But that highlights the problem. Abbas claims Israel is guilty of “ethnic cleansing.” The OIC claims Israel is guilty of “war crimes.” Others claim Israel is guilty of a “Holocaust.” These aren’t just mischievous terms. They are part of a framework designed to justify violence - or to be blunt, terrorism, - against Israel. The more the media, the West and the peace processors ignore and fail to challenge these falsehoods, the more they allow the Palestinians and their apologists to justify terror.

Instead they treat it as the unserious ramblings of eccentrics who don’t really mean what they say.

The problem is that that the people uttering these outrageous claims against Israel are serious, not eccentric and mean everything they say.

Crossposted at Soccer Dad,

Daled Amos observes that the State Department recognizes that Anti-Zionism may indeed be antisemitism.

The report is thematic in nature and, using illustrative examples of contemporary forms of anti-Semitism, provides a broad overview of anti-Semitic incidents, discourse and trends. The report documents traditional forms of anti-Semitism such as those associated with Nazism, but also discusses new manifestations of anti-Semitism, including instances when criticism of Israel and Zionism crosses the line into anti-Semitism. The report covers anti-Semitism in both government and private media, and within the United Nations system. It concludes with a review of governmental and nongovernmental efforts to combat the problem.

Daled Amos is correct that this is a step in the right direction. But did Secretary Rice read the report?

Recently Mahmoud Abbas said that he wouldn’t rule out a return to “armed struggle.” It was a statement so egregious that Nita Lowey threatened to hold up US funding to the PA over it. It was so notable that even the New York Times mentioned it, albeit a week or two late. And how did Secretary Rice treat the comments?

“We have all had the experience of perhaps saying things that we wish we hadn’t said, and I can just tell you that this is somebody who for many, many years now has rejected violence as a means to statehood,” Rice said, noting that Abbas had later said the comments were taken out of context. “I can’t account for his comments. I think they were extremely unfortunate. We made that very clear to him.”

(h/t LGF)

Well did Abbas apologize when apprised of the State Department’s concerns? And what happened say when Arafat launched the “aqsa intifada” in 2000? Did Abbas resign in protest? Did he insist that Arafat accept PM Barak’s offer at Camp David? Has he ever categorically condemned a terror attack on Israelis?

On the basis of what evidence does Secretary Rice know that Abbas has “for many, many years now has rejected violence?” I’ve seen nothing in his record to conclude that is true. He’s mostly said the right things in English. But his actions surely haven’t been the actions of a moderate. Nor have many of his statements. Why can’t Secretary Rice acknowledge the anti-Zionism of the “moderate” leader of Fatah?

It’s a positive step that the State Department recognized the problem. It would be a hugely positive step if the State Department would act on its conclusion.

Crossposted on Soccer Dad.

While the media is willing to acknowledge that the al Aqsa Martyr’s Brigade is “affiliated” with “moderate” Mahmoud Abbas’s Fatah faction, it usually takes pains to minimize those ties.I am of the opinion that members of Fatah were involved in some way in the Merkaz Harav massacre. Two more data points emerge.

Ynet reports based on Palestinian sources that

The newspaper also reported that the Israeli government has asked the Palestinian Authority to hand over two members of the Islamic Jihad and Fatah’s al-Aqsa Brigades suspected of helping Abu Dheim obtain the weapon he used to fire at the students.

Also Elder of Ziyon (crediting Ynet) notes that Fatah (and Hezbollah) will be paying “terrorist” insurance to the family of Muhammad Shahade, suspected of planning the Merkaz attack.

And what about those right wing extremist Rabbis who sought revenge for the terror attack? Well the Shin-Bet now says that this report carried by Israeli newspapers is “unfounded.”

The Shin bet stated Saturday that reports indicating that extreme Right wing activists were planning to conduct terror attacks against Arabs were unfounded.

However that didn’t stop APN from issuing a hysterical press release condemning some posters that have appeared around Jerusalem.

Incitement, particularly when perceived as sanctioned by a religious authority, is akin to a loaded weapon. Regardless of what some politicians are saying publicly, many observant Israelis believe that rabbinical authorities have sanctioned violent revenge. According to some Israeli media reports, several of the national-religious spiritual leaders have done just that in private conversation with their followers.

(BTW, I e-mailed APN asking them if they’d rescind this “letter.” I await their response and permission to publish. I’d be very surprised if I got a specific response.)

As Meryl noted the other day that Rabbi Ovadia Yosef and Rabbi Yonah Metzger (former and current Chief Rabbis) called for rather passive forms of revenge. At the funeral of the eight murdered students, Nadav Shragai also noted that it was dominated by grief, not calls for revenge.

Please remind me again who’s moderate and who’s extreme? Religious Zionists or Fatah?

Crossposted on Soccer Dad.

Yet another “moderate” Muslim spokesman regularly called on by CNN and news organizations to give his [anti-Israel] opinion has been exposed for the Jew-hater that he is.

The editor of a pan-Arab daily published in London says the terrorist attack on Jerusalem’s Mercaz Harav Yeshiva on March 6 attack was “justified” and that the religious seminary is responsible for “hatching Israeli extremists and fundamentalists.”

In his lead article last Sunday, Abd al-Bari Atwan, editor of Al-Quds Al-Arabi, chose not to condemn the shooting attack in which eight students were killed and nine were wounded, and said the celebrations in Gaza that followed symbolized the “courage of the Palestinian nation.”

He added that the recent violence in Gaza might “mark the countdown to Israel’s destruction.”

Yeah, it takes a lot of courage to celebrate the deaths of seven teenagers and one adult.

Let’s do a quick recap. First of all, he’s wrong. But let’s assume that Mercaz Harav is responsible for “hatching Israeli extremists and fundamentalists.” How many deaths can we tally up to these “extremists”?

Right. Now let’s tally the number of deaths from Muslim extremists since September 10th, 2001. Factor in the bombings in Iraq, the hangings and decapitations in Saudi Arabia and Iran, the suicide attacks in Pakistan, the murders in Thailand, the Philippines, Russia, Chechnya, Indonesia, Malaysia, Yemen, Morocco, and damn, I’m tired of adding nations.

Tell us again how many deaths you can attribute to Israeli “extremists”?

Uh-huh.

“This article is alarming, since Atwan is perceived as a legitimate and unbiased analyst by the British media, and is often invited to voice his views in different media platforms,” said Lior Ben-Dor, spokesman at the Israeli Embassy in London. “The problem is that when addressing the British public, he tends to hide his true opinions and ideology - his support for terror and the murder of civilians. This article reveals Atwan’s real colors, a supporter of fundamentalism and terror, and hence he should be treated accordingly.”

Oh, like that’s gonna happen. Because he said this last year, and nothing changed:

In an interview on ANB Lebanese television in June, Atwan said, “If the Iranian missiles strike Israel, by God, I will go to Trafalgar Square and dance with delight.