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Jews, infidels, and everyone else in-between

When observing the daily demonstrations by Muslims and their radicalized supporters on the campuses and streets of America, I never cease to be amazed by the primal rage, overt hatred, and endless blaming of Jews expressed loudly, obsessively, and repeatedly. One cannot escape the question: why are Muslims so easily offended? When I see and hear these voices of hostility, I am reminded of the classic novel “Moby Dick” authored by Herman Melville. “Call me Ishmael”, is the opening sentence that opens the novel “Moby Dick”, and recounts that he, Ismael is sailing to sea out of a sense of alienation and cultural inadequacy. Ishmael describes the behavior of Captain Ahab who is so relentless in his obsession to kill the great white whale, that he is willing to endanger the entire ship, all of his sailors, just to kill the great white whale. The name Ishmael, the son of the Patriarch Abraham from the old Testament as well as the Koran, symbolizes more than anything the sense of being rejected and being scorned my one’s peers and by one’s civilization.

Ever since the days of Napoleon's landing upon the shores of Egypt at the very end of the 18th Century bringing with him the modern era to the people of the Middle East, Islam has been unable to free itself from the shackles of inferiority and self-destructive primal rage that typifies the hatred of modern day Muslims and their radicalized supporters against Jews and essentially everyone else. In recent years, and even more so since the Oct 7th massacre by Hamas of civilians living in communities adjacent to the Gaza Strip, the intensity of the hate, blame, and violence against Jews has reached new heights.

The European continent has over the past two decades undergone a rapid demographic transition that has led to a large Muslim population harboring an unchanging, hostile attitude toward their respective communities and host countries. We have much to learn from their experience during this transition. Nicolai Sennels, a Danish psychologist who has had extensive experience with treating Muslim youths has identified four main cultural differences that are important in order to understand the behavior of Muslims and how they interact with Western influences. Sennels has identified four main cultural sub-types that are important in order to understand the behavior of modern day Muslims. They concern anger, self-confidence, the so-called "locus of control" and identity.

Westerners are brought up to think of anger as a sign of weakness, powerlessness and lack of self-control. According to Sennels, in Muslim culture, anger is seen as a sign of strength. To Muslims, being aggressive is a way of gaining respect. When we see violent demonstrators, or the more classic pictures of bearded men jumping up and down while shooting in the air, we should take it for what it is: these are the true role models of acceptable behavior and the explicit legitimization of anger. In Western culture, self-confidence is connected with the ability to meet criticism calmly and to respond rationally. We are raised to see people who easily get angry when criticized, as insecure and immature. According to Sennels, in Muslim culture it is the opposite; it is honorable to respond aggressively and to engage in a physical fight in order to scare or force critics to withdraw, even if this results in a prison sentence or even death. Non-aggressive responses to such threats and violence are a sign of a vulnerability that is to be exploited by Muslims. They do not interpret a peaceful response as an invitation to enter into a dialogue, diplomacy, intellectual debate, compromise or peaceful coexistence but the opposite, as a sign of weakness.

"Locus of control" is a term from the field of psychology, and relates to the way in which individuals feel that they have control of their lives. In Western culture, we are brought up to have an "inner locus of control," meaning that we see our own inner emotions, reactions, decisions and views as the main deciding factors in our lives. There may be outer circumstances that influence our situation, but in the end, it is our own perception of a situation and the way we handle it that decides our future and our state of mind. The "inner locus of control" leads to increased self-responsibility and motivates people to become able to solve their own problems.

According to Sennels, Muslims are brought up to have an "outer locus of control." Their constant use of the term “Inshallah”, ("Allah willing") when talking about the future, as well as the fact that most aspects of their lives are decided by older traditions, clan tribal affiliations and authorities, leaves very little space for individual freedom. Independent initiatives are often severely punished. This shapes their way of thinking, and means that when things go wrong, it is always the fault of others or external factors (Jews, discrimination, so called corrupt American culture and so forth).

Identity plays a significant role when it comes to psychological differences between Muslims and American society. Americans and Europeans have been brought up to be open and tolerant toward other cultures, races, religions, etc. This makes us less critical, impairs our ability to discriminate, and makes our societies open to the influence of other cultural trends and values that may not always be constructive. According to Sennels, Muslims, are taught again and again that they are superior, and that all others starting with the Jews are subservient and inferior and that Allah will throw them into hell when they die. Muslim culture's self-glorification achieves the very opposite when exposed to the overall freedom afforded in America. In general, Westerners are taught to be kind, self-assured, self-responsible and tolerant of others, while Muslims are taught to be aggressive, insecure and intolerant.

The Pavlovian tendency to being overly forgiving in response to Muslim self-pity and blame is the psychological crowbar that has welcomed the escalating Muslim violence against Jews and everyone else in their way. It was Newt Gingrich who stated that "the Islamists cannot reconcile with a secular system of laws. They cannot truly tolerate a West that maintains a presence in the Arabian Gulf or that would defend Israel's right to survive as a country. They cannot tolerate freedom of speech, freedom of religion, or freedom for women. Their demands are irreconcilable with the modern world.

While trying to understand the volatility of millions of Middle Easterners taught from birth to hate America and to despise Israel, we in the West should be asking one basic question. Why do we feel the need to pander and apologize to the most radical, violent and intolerant extremes around the world, to let them set the tone; a tone designed to stifle all criticism of Islam, to declare as blasphemy any attempt to reform radical Islam. This more than anything is at the crux of the transformation America is undergoing, making the campuses and streets of America intolerant of Jews and anyone else in their way. It can also provide a pathway to explaining why Arabs are so easily offended.

Putting Egypt and Turkey on notice

Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, the supreme leader of the Islamic Republic of Iran, published back in 2011 his book entitled “Palestine.” In explicit detail, the leader of Iran laid out his vision of how to destroy the “Zionist entity” phase by phase. Make life in Israel miserable and unbearable with daily terror from the Palestinians in Judea and Samaria, from Hamas in Gaza, and from Hezbollah in Lebanon creating a never ending instability militarily, politically, economically, and culturally thereby threatening the national cohesion of the State of Israel. The final goal in his book ends with the dispersion of the Jews to their previous countries from which they fled or immigrated. It was no surprise that when the Iranian ballistic missiles began raining on Israel ten days ago, Palestinians everywhere celebrated and danced in the streets and on their rooftops, handed out sweets to passersby, and cheered on the destruction and havoc caused by these bus size ballistic missiles with 1.5 ton warheads. Yet despite this apocalyptic Islamist fantasy, and as the temporary ceasefire brokered by President Trump between Iran and Israel goes into effect, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei is holed up in some descript bunker in the north of Iran with his immediate family, cut off from the world, exhausted and consumed with his hatred of the Jews and the State of Israel, wondering about the moment when Israel will decide to finish him off.

The Iranian regime’s stated goal from its inception has been the total annihilation of the State of Israel. This is not a slogan, but a cornerstone of Iranian religious, political, and military doctrine. Iran and its current regime leadership are indeed an “existential threat” on the State of Israel, having her nuclear arsenal and capabilities destroyed by Israel literally at the last moment. The Iranian plan to surround and coordinate an attack on the State of Israel with terror proxies; Hamas terror organization in Gaza, Palestinians in Judea and Samaria, Hezbollah terror organization in Lebanon, the Houthis terror organization from Yemen, Syrian Army, culminated in a barbaric and savage attack on Israel on October 7^th, with thousands sadistically murdered, wounded, and taken hostage. Yet, from that dark day, from the depths of unfathomable suffering, when Israel was caught unprepared for the murderous onslaught, and arising from this painful low point, we can today proudly raise our heads after destroying Iran’s nuclear capabilities that endangered the continuing existence of the State of Israel, after destroying the Hamas terror organization, after destroying the Hezbollah terror organization, after destroying the Syrian Army. The political and military leadership of all these enemies have been eliminated one by one and at times in clusters.

In the aftermath of the ten day war between Israel and Iran, Israel’s decision makers must calibrate their thinking about how to deter future adversaries whom despite being perceived as deterred, were able to coordinate an offensive initiative, rooted in the element of surprise, and inflict death and destruction on a local level, and severely weaken Israel’s strategic capabilities and dominance in the Middle East. Israel launched Operation “Rising Lion”, to roll back the Iranian threat to Israel's very survival, but no less to send a very specific lesson to future adversaries such as the nations of Egypt and Turkey. Both of these nations have quietly abetted and provided political and strategic support to the very same terror proxies trained and funded by the Islamic Republic of Iran.

Egypt and Israel signed a historic peace agreement in March 1979 to end hostilities and normalize relations. It marked the first treaty of its kind between an Arab country and Israel. The peace agreement between Egypt and Israel was viewed at the time as having reshaped the history of the Arab-Israeli conflict for the better. Yet for the past two decades, Egypt’s claim to de-escalate and bring an end to the conflict between Israel and her neighbors would be much more believable and credible had they neutralized and prevented the construction of hundreds of underground tunnels between the Gaza Strip and the adjacent Sinai Peninsula, the eastern border of Egypt. These tunnels some large enough to allow motor vehicles to pass through, enabled Hamas to import arsenals of weapons and unlimited materials to enable the construction of an underground military capacity that clandestinely threatened the State of Israel.

Although Egypt is a poor country, with a low GDP per capita rating, with tens of millions of Egyptians forced to live in cemeteries or boxes as a substitute for a home; Egypt has built up the strongest army among the Arab nations of the Middle East with over: 5,000 tanks, hundreds of advanced fighter warplanes and helicopters, over 100 naval vessels and submarines, and an estimated one million soldiers in uniform. A study by the Jaffee Center for Strategic Studies reported that Egypt's air force has undergone the most significant modernization of any military in the Arab world. "From the point of view of weapon systems," the author concluded, "the military-technological gap between the Egyptian and Israeli Air Forces is gradually narrowing." In addition, the “Egyptian Air Force’s increasing confidence is reflected in its acquisition of aircraft for deep-penetration strikes into enemy territory.” Egypt now has some of the most sophisticated U.S.-made weapons, including Abrams tanks, F-16 fighter planes, and Apache attack helicopters. Western intelligence agencies are aware of and have leaked details that Israel - the country Egypt signed a peace treaty with - is the "enemy" in all of Egypt's war games.

Turkey, one of the few countries in the world that most Americans do not visit, probably in response to the 1978 movie "Midnight Express" , portraying Turkey for what it is, a backward, sadistic, and corrupt nation.

Despite its 85 million citizens, Turkey has failed to position itself as an influential regional power. The current Islamist government’s new policy, which is premised on Neo-Ottomanize (a return to the Ottoman Empire’s glory days,) registered a series of stinging diplomatic failures in recent years. Yet Prime Minister Erodgan and his party have reinforced their political status within Turkey through the daily scapegoating of Israel in the "best" of Islamic tradition. Only recently Turkey expelled the Israeli ambassador, suspended defense contracts with Jerusalem, announced legal action against senior Israeli figures in European courts, threatened to bring the dispute before the international court and “take measures for freedom of maritime movement in the Mediterranean” including positioning her Navy so as to interfere with the free movement of Israeli shipping and mining expeditions in the Mediterranean Sea. Turkey has been a dominant and strategic partner to Hamas and her leadership enabling terror leaders to operate, coordinate, fund, and train terrorists in Turkey.

The epilogue to the current period ending with the total humiliation of Iran; militarily, technologically, and politically while exposing her true capabilities as nothing more than a “paper tiger”, and nothing close to the regional superpower the Iranians have falsely claimed. The lesson should not be lost on the nations of Egypt and Turkey. Both nations have large populations of poor and uneducated citizens, allowing them to become just another Islamic nation that can be overthrown at any time.

"Redemptive antisemitism" aims to rid the world of Israel and all Jews.

We are witnessing the rebirth of Nazi era inspired "redemptive anti-Semitism” where all the world's problems are solved by exterminating and purifying humanity by annihilating Jews everywhere. All you have to do is listen to the thousands of anti-Israel and Jew haters as they demonstrate on the campuses of American Universities or on the streets of major urban cities everywhere in the United States. The very same slogans were shouted out by an illegal Egyptian Muslim immigrant as he attacked Jews in Boulder Colorado with flame blowers and fire bombs, and by a leftist extremist as he shot point blank and murdered two Israeli embassy staffers in Washington, D. C. as they were leaving an event at the Capital Jewish Museum, all happening within the past two weeks.

Despite historical record being supportive of our collective Jewish historical narrative and Israel becoming a nation admired and respected throughout the world, we have witnessed in recent years, primarily during the Democratic progressive administration of the Biden Presidency, a kind of pinnacle of anti-Semitism and Jew hatred everywhere. This transformation from harboring anti-Semitic thoughts to physically attacking Jews, symbols of Israel or the Jewish religion, desecrating Jewish institutions, cemeteries, JCC’s, represents a historical leap that is reminiscent of Jew hatred during the Nazi era. Anti-Semites have in a relatively short span of time created an atmosphere of fear and intimidation that Jews are conscious of whenever they leave their homes. Today’s Jew haters feel empowered due to the lack of enforcement and harbor a sense of immunity from being held accountable as they document their hatred on social media. Tolerating Jew hatred has become the new norm, allowing Jew haters to commit a violent attack on any Jew that crosses their path.

For the past century America was a “safe haven” for American Jews enabling the Jewish community to reach the highest pinnacles of almost all fields of endeavor. Yet with the continuing daily anti-Semitic attacks reaching new heights, an updated understanding of how the old or classical anti-Semitism has evolved into the new anti-Semitism namely, “Redemptive Anti-Semitism," is due.

In the past we were accustomed to the classical type of anti-Semitism, the “gentlemen’s agreement” type of bigotry and discrimination against Jews; residential restrictions, academic restrictions, cultural restrictions, and employment restrictions. We have entered a new era of Jewish hatred that resonates from the past. As we move back to the future, and as Jews are hunted down and attacked violently in broad daylight on the streets of major cities in America, Canada and Europe, all you have to do to understand this new phenomenon is listen to their declarative threats. The common thread unifying the desire for the total destruction of Jews is shared by Muslims, radicalized supporters and Nazi ideology. They want Jews to die and they want to annihilate the Jewish community as a whole. These vicious barbarians want to “kill the Jews” with their own bare hands and show their actions to the world through social media.

A relatively unknown historical manifestation links together the radical anti-Semitism of the Nazi ideology and the modern day Jew hatred by radical American/European Muslims and radicalized supporters. This common bond of “purifying” humanity of any Jewish presence promoted and upheld by radical Islam and the Nazi ideology now spans more than a nine decade period. We can no longer deny the nearly identical ideological and doctrinal models used by the Nazis and modern day radical Muslims and radicalized supporters who promote the killing of Jews and demand the total annihilation of the State of Israel.

Nazi ideology spoke of “redemptive anti-Semitism”, namely a form of anti-Semitism that explains all in the world by offering a form of “redemption” by exterminating and purifying humanity from the Jews. Islamic religious and political leaders broadcast daily sermons of incitement to murder Jews, promising heaven and redemption for those that carry out this call to rid the world of Jews. “Redemptive anti-Semitism” is a theory expounded by the Holocaust historian Professor Saul Friedlander. He maintained that Nazi anti-Semitism was distinctive for being “redemptive anti-Semitism”, namely a form of anti-Semitism that could explain all in the world and offer a form of “redemption” for the anti-Semitic person. Friedländer spoke about a specifically Nazi aspect of anti-Semitism. That's the belief in a racial hierarchy, with the "the Jews" at the bottom. It holds that everything wrong with the world, and everything wrong with people, is a result of the malign influence of "the Jews." According to this idea, exterminating the Jews will prevent them from corrupting the world any further and will enable people to be redeemed and purified. Friedlander’s use of the term "liberation from Jews" begins with physical attacks, followed by the expulsion of Jews from their homes and communities and finally ends with their physical annihilation.

The connection between the modern day publicly displayed Islamic Jew hatred and the Nazi regime in Germany runs deep, as the Nazis did their best to support through finance and advice the embryonic radical Islamic movements in British ruled Egypt and Iraq through the late 1930s and early 1940s. A key player was the Grand Mufti of Jerusalem, Haj Amin al-Husseini. The Grand Mufti of Jerusalem, Haj Amin al-Husseini who met covertly with representatives of the Nazi SS intelligence arm during the late 1930s, and not coincidentally with Otto Adolf Eichmann, who was a German-Austrian Nazi SS-Obersturmbannführer (Lieutenant Colonel) and one of the major implementers of the Holocaust’s systematic annihilation and extermination of European Jewry. Eichmann played a central role in the deportation of over 1.5 million Jews from all over Europe to killing camps and killing sites in occupied Poland and in parts of the occupied Soviet Union. With the British Mandate intelligence services becoming aware of Al-Husseini’s clandestine activities, he opted to flee to Germany for the remainder of World War II, remaining active as a propagandist and recruiter of Balkan Muslims into the Waffen SS Handschar and Kama Divisions, used extensively in the latter part of the war, as German manpower available for combat divisions declined. An interesting footnote to Al-Husseini’s family lineage; Yasser Arafat, the deceased mass murderer pf Jews, and the founding leader of the Palestinian Liberation Organization, was a first nephew of Al-Husseini.

The shift of “redemptive antisemitism” from Nazi Germany to the four corners of the Arab world during and after World War II, is not merely a supplementary feature of modern radical Islam, but lies instead at its ideological core and is an antecedent of a modern manifestation of “redemptive anti-Semitism”. With its proliferation and exportation and re-introduction into Western societies, “redemptive anti-Semitism” has become rampant among American and European Muslims and their supporters.

Social media tweets and comments such as “As long as there is Jewish life in the world, peace is not possible,” or “Palestine from the river to the sea” have become the new norm and “redemptive anti-Semitism” will continue to empower Muslims and their supporters to continue their crusade to free humanity as they understand. There is no Jewish conspiracy to dominate the world, but there is a widespread global anti-Jewish conspiracy based on the principles of “redemptive anti-Semitism”. It starts with the Jews but it does not end with the Jews. The first airplane that was hijacked was an Israeli airplane, and today at every airport at every country in the world, we now we line up for security checks, so the world should be concerned. The danger of dismissing the inherent threat of “redemptive anti-Semitism” lies in its danger not only for the Jews, but for the whole world.

The Six Day Miracle – “Operation Moked”

For most Americans, the date June 6^th, is mostly remembered for the American and Allied invasion of France marking the beginning of the end of Nazi domination over Europe. The attack involved 3,000,000 men, 11,000 planes and 4,000 ships. For us in Israel and many Jewish communities throughout the world, June 6^th is remembered as a day of miracles for the Jewish nation.

The six days from June 5^th until June 10, 1967 are without parallel in the story of human warfare. These 6 days are also without parallel as far as modern day miracles are concerned as well. Prior to 1967, who had ever heard of a full-scale war measured in days? One which began at 07:45 Monday morning and was over dramatically on Saturday of the same week. This was a war in which one tiny country – Israel - faced five hostile Arab countries: Egypt, Syria, Jordan, with assistance from Iraq and Lebanon and with a combined military might of twice the number of soldiers, three times the amount of tanks and four times the amount of fighter aircraft. Egypt and Syria military forces were trained by leading Soviet military advisors and armed with the most sophisticated weaponry in the Soviet arsenal. This was a war when, even in the event of victory, some experts assessed the expected Israeli death toll to be as high as 100,000 causalities, yet somehow it ended with less than 800 Israeli killed in action. This coming week we celebrate the victory of the Six Day War in which Israel miraculously defeated the combined armies of all the Arab nations that surrounded her. It was in this war that Israel liberated and united the City of Jerusalem and returned to the heartland of her ancient homeland – Judea and Samaria, all prophesized in the Holy Bible.

Ezer Weizman, who had a major impact on the creation of the Israeli Air Force and was Head of Operations during the war, was asked to explain the astounding success of the air force on the first day of the war. All he could think of was a verse from the Bible, in which Pharaoh’s greatest sorcerers and advisor submitted to a met-physical explanation of the plagues – “it is the Finger of G-d”. The then Chief of Staff, Yitzchak Rabin, summed up the war with a message in a telegram sent to the post-war celebrations in Tel-Aviv, with the following quote from the Hallel prayer- “This is the day that Hashem made; we shall exult and rejoice on it.”

A new reality had been created. Something of Biblical proportions, redemptive realities and Messianic implications. Something in the human order had irrevocable changed. The core of this shift was not only the miraculous nature of the war but the fact that the Jewish people had returned for the first time in 2000 years, not only to their holiest site, but to a site held dear to over three billion people, to all three major monotheistic religions, Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. The implication is clear. The human saga began here and humanity’s spiritual destiny is inextricably linked to Jerusalem. The sovereign return of the Jewish people to Jerusalem was therefore a spiritual and political seismic shift of epic proportions.

Salvation from the Sky” – Operation Moked

At 07:15 Monday morning (June 5^th, 1967) almost all the planes (about 200) in the Israeli Air Force (IAF) set off to attack the Egyptian Air Force – its planes and airfields. Only 12 Fighter Jets stayed and patrolled the open skies of all of Israel to protect the center of the country. “Operation Moked” which launched the war, carried strategic and existential risks. Egypt had a well-developed, advanced anti-aircraft arsenal, boasting dozens of missiles and hundreds of cannons, generously supplied by the Soviet Union and her satellite states. In complete contrast, most of the Israeli planes were old French models, hardly fitting for the operational needs at hand. Had the Israeli attacking force been detected on their way, before the attack, they could have easily been knocked out of the air and Israel would have remained defenseless with her Air Force almost completely destroyed.

It was precisely then that the great miracle occurred. All of the aircraft reached the Egyptian airfields in Sinai, along the Suel Canal and the Nile River – without even one being detected. The entire Egyptian anti-aircraft batteries line all along the border perimeters of Egypt didn’t function. Divine Providence linked arms with the brave Israeli pilots. They flew in total silence at an altitude of only 80 feet above the sea with precision and operational discipline. At exactly 07:45, the Israeli planes hovered over the Egyptian airfields and bombed the runways, effectively putting the Egyptian Air force out of action. Within 60 miraculous minutes, more than 200 Egyptian planes had been destroyed, all of Egypt’s military runways were bombed preventing any remaining Egyptian planes from taking off turning these fighter aircraft into sitting ducks only to be destroyed by the 2nd sweep of Israeli bombers. General Motti Hod, the head of the IAF at the time was quoted as stating “Even in my wildest dreams I could not have imagined such as achievement,” adding “Who can express the power of G-d, tell all His praise?” (Psalms 106:2). Exactly three hours after the start of Operation Moked, at 10:45, the war had been won. Approximately 300 Egyptian planes had been destroyed and all her airfields completely disabled.

The miracles were not over yet. Egypt’s allies – Jordan, Syria and Iraq – believed the Egyptians false announcements of great victories against Israel and rushed into the fray, eager to be part of the “Great Victory”. Arab planes attacked Israeli towns and army bases, but before they had a chance to cause any serious damage, Israel’s combat pilots and anti-aircraft batteries had shot them down. Following this attack, Israel decided to expand Operation Moked and destroy Syrian and Jordanian aerial power. So at 12:45, the third wave took form and by 3:45, more than 100 Jordanian and Syrian planes had been destroyed and all their military airfields paralyzed. Within 24 hours, all within the first day of the Six Day War, three major Arab nations threatening Israel had lost their Air Forces, and the Israeli Air Force was the sole ruler of Middle Eastern skies, a reality that has persisted till this very day.

Within Six Days, the Israel Defense Forces were stationed along new borders that had expanded the country to three times its pre-war size. Despite the weeks and months of hostile actions prior to the Six Day War unilaterally taken by Israel’s Arab neighbors that were without a doubt, declarations of war, no one in Israel or anywhere else for that matter expected such an outcome. On the contrary, Israel had prepared for a long and painful war with thousands dead. What transpired was the exact opposite, the world was in awe. In those Six-Days we saw the bravery of the Jewish people march hand in hand with Divine Providence. G-d’s outstretched Hand gave us our Land back, as he commanded us “ I have given the land before you, come and inherit the land that God swore to your forefathers, to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, to give to them and their future generations.” (Deuteronomy 1:8)

*this article is based in its entirety on a booklet written by Dr. Hagi Ben-Artzi – The Six-Day War Scroll, The Story of Yom Yerushalayim and the Six Days of Deliverance