Watch 2016 Abby Martin Interview With Palestinian Resistance Teenager Ahed Tamimi (VIDEO)

"Israeli media has tried to dismiss Ahed's militancy as simply robotic training"

It is the Israeli army that is a definition of robotic training - and a poor excuse for a human beings. They must have no feelings at all, only a heartless robot could do the things they do.

I salute this young woman and I await the day when Ahed's words directed at the Israeli soldiers in the video will finally come true:

"You are laughing at us now but you don't know that Palestine will be free and we will laugh at you as you leave."

The following quotes and paraphrasing are largely drawn from Israel Shahak and Norton Mezvinsky

"Shahak is an outstanding scholar, with remarkable insight and depth of knowledge. His work is informed and penetrating, a contribution of great value."

-- Noam Chomsky

"The voice of reason is alive and well, and in Israel, of all places. Shahak is the latest -- if not the last -- of the great prophets."

-- Gore Vidal

If you read only one author on the subject, it ought to be Israel Shahak..a highly-respected Jewish-Israeli historian/researcher and human-rights campaigner — reveals the horrific truth behind “Talmudic ideology” and its fundamentalist, anti-gentile world-view. Shahak’s most important academic contribution lies in the fact that he — as a speaker of Hebrew — is able to provide unparalleled insight into what is written in the Hebrew-language press itself about these contentious topics: “All modern studies on Judaism, particularly by Jews, …bear the unmistakable marks of their origin: deception, apologetics or hostile polemics, indifference or even active hostility to the pursuit of truth,”

- “Jewish History, Jewish Religion.

The following quotes and paraphrasing are largely drawn from Israel Shahak and Norton Mezvinsky's 1999 book Jewish Fundamentalism in Israel.

The following are some important introductory points made by Shahak and Mezvinsky.

In chapter one they write, "Almost every moderately sophisticated Israeli Jew knows the facts about Israeli Jewish society that are described in this book. These facts, however, are unknown to most interested Jews and non-Jews outside Israel who do not know Hebrew and thus cannot read most of what Israeli Jews write about themselves in Hebrew. These facts are rarely mentioned or are described inaccurately in the enormous media coverage of Israel in the United States and elsewhere. The major purpose of this book is to provide those persons who do not read Hebrew with more understanding of one important aspect of Israeli Jewish society."

In their preface Shahak and Mezvinsky note the glaring double standard when it comes to discussion of Jewish Fundamentalism as compared to Christian and Islamic Fundamentalism. "Although possessing nearly all the important social scientific properties of Islamic and Christian fundamentalism, Jewish fundamentalism is practically unknown outside of Israel and certain sections of a few other places. When its existence is acknowledged, its significance is minimized or limited to arcane religious practices and quaint middle European dress, most often by those same non-Israeli elite commentators who see so uncompromisingly the evils inherent in Jewish fundamentalism's Islamic and/or Christian cousins." Shahak and Mezvinsky note "...the dismissal of the perniciousness of Jewish fundamentalism to peace and to its victims by those who are otherwise knowledgeable and astute and so quick to point out the violence inherent in other fundamentalist approaches to existence."

Shahak and Mezvinsky argue that sensitive parts of Talmudic literature have been censored by being toned down and falsified in English and other language translations (and are only selectively passed on to students by their rabbis). In their introduction they write how, "...as a result, we have ourselves translated all of the texts from talmudic literature that we have quoted in the book." In chapter 4 they explain how accurate descriptions of, for instance, Lurianic cabbalistic doctrines (ie. mystical teachings accepted by various Jewish sects) are to be found in numerous studies written in Hebrew, but in other languages such descriptions are almost absent. For instance, according to the Kabbala, the Earthly embodiment of Satan is every non-Jew. Non-Hebrew writers have minimised the role of Satan. In their preface Shahak and Mezvinsky wrote how, "...Jewish mysticism, the Lurianic Cabbala, Hassidism and the teachings of Rabbi Kook [an important figure behind the illegal settlement movements] contain basic ideas about Jewish superiority comparable to the worst forms of anti-Semitism.", and that book shelves full of books on these topics in the English speaking world and elsewhere do not reflect this fact, and readers are therefore misled. "The scholarly authors of these books, for example [Prof] Gershon Scholem, have willfully omitted reference to such ideas.

'Thinking people will realise that the worst reaction to such a revelation and the associated information would be to persecute and mistreat Jewish people in any way. Reasonable people will also realise that any such reaction would itself be inhumane and irrational. Similarly, reasonable people will realise that only an elite few of those who identify themselves as Jewish are fully conscious of these inhumane doctrines and policies and the remainder would, presumably, be horrified (if not fearful). Israel Shahak and Norton Mezvinsky explain how few Jewish people, who do not read Hebrew, are even aware of the extent of the fundamentalist or Zionist philosophy.

'Shahak goes into more explosive detail about the censoring of religious texts in his book Jewish History, Jewish Religion: The Weight of Three Thousand Years. Shahak and Mezvinsky's explanations about Israel's politically influential Gush Emunim sect provide an instructive example of their overall message...."Gush Emunim continues to encourage Israeli authorities to deal cruelly with Palestinians in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip. The refusals of Prime Ministers Rabin, Peres and Netanyahu to advocate the evacuation of even a single Jewish settlement is attributable primarily to the influence of Gush Emunim. According to Shahak and Mezvinsky, the Gush Emunim Rabbis who are cited as authorities in their book, and who are referred to by Gush Emunim researcher Professor Urial Tal (who is also referred to in their book), are not obscure or fringe rabbis but are important Israeli figures.'

One of Gush Emunim's important leaders, Rabbi Shlomo Aviner said, 'While God requires other normal nations to abide by abstract codes of justice and righteousness, such laws do not apply to Jews'...

....He also asserted that a rabbinical court or a king of Israel "has 'the power to punish anyone by death if it is believed that the world will thereby be improved' The rabbinical court or king of Israel can alternatively punish non-Jews and wicked Jews [a term used to include informers] by beating them mercilessly, by imprisoning them under the most severe conditions and/or by inflicting upon them other extreme suffering

Relying on the important, authoritative, codification of Talmudic Law by Moses Maimonides, and on the Halacha, Gush Emunim Rabbi Israel Ariel stated, A Jew who killed a non-Jew is exempt from human judgment

The following is an example of how censorship has been applied to this material. From Jewish History, Jewish Religion: The Weight of Three Thousand Years - " In 1962, a part of the Maimonidean Code referred to above, the so-called Book of Knowledge, which contains the most basic rules of Jewish faith and practice, was published in Jerusalem in a bilingual edition, with the English translation facing the Hebrew text. The latter has been restored to its original purity, and the command to exterminate Jewish infidels appears in it in full:

'It is a duty to exterminate them with one's own hands.'

In the English translation this is somewhat softened to: 'It is a duty to take active measures to destroy them.'

But then the Hebrew text goes on to specify the prime examples of 'infidels' who must be exterminated: 'Such as Jesus of Nazareth and his pupils, and Tzadoq and Baitos and their pupils, may the name of the wicked rot'. Not one word of this appears in the English text on the facing page (78a). And, even more significant, in spite of the wide circulation of this book among scholars in the English-speaking countries, not one of them has as far as I know, protested against this glaring deception."

According to Shahak and Mezvinsky, Professor Uriel Tal, also an expert in German Nazism, wrote (in Hebrew) the one significant and learned analysis of the Gush Emunim ideology. Foundations of a Political Messianic Trend in Israel published in English in 1985 in the Jerusalem Quarterly. (Uriel Tal (1926-1984) was professor of Modern Jewish History and holder of the Jacob M. and Shoshana Schreiber Chair of Contemporary Jewish History at Tel Aviv University.) In his analysis he quotes Rabbi Yehuda Amital, "an outstanding Gush leader who was appointed minister without portfolio in the Israeli government in November 1995, by then Prime Minister Peres and who served in that capacity until June 1996. Peres described Amital as a moderate". The text is Amital's "On the significance of the Yom Kippur War [1973]."

'Therefore, Amital claims, this is the focus of the Yom Kippur War: 'The gentiles are fighting for their mere survival as gentiles, as the ritually unclean. Iniquity is fighting its battle for survival. It knows that in the Wars of God, there will neither be a place for the Satan, nor for the spirit of defilement, nor for the remains of Western culture, the proponents of which are, as it were, the secular Jews. ' The participation (direct or indirect) of all the oil-consuming countries in the struggle in the Middle East, he says, indeed, reinforces the messianic dimension of the war.' [This was alluded to by former UN weapons inspector Scott Ritter in his book War on Iraq.]

'In conclusion, we are presented with a political messianism in which the individual, the people and the land arrive at an organic union, bestowed with absolute holiness. It is based on a metaphysical comprehension of political reality, which is expressed by a conception of the totality of time and place. The danger of this totalistic outlook lies in its leading to a totalitarian conception of political reality 'because it leaves neither time nor place for the human and civil rights of the non-Jew.' - Uriel Tal

In chapter 4 Shahak and Mezvinsky point to a modern and influential expression of these discussed attitudes which is, "evident in the teachings and writings of the late 'Lubovitcher Rebbe,' Rabbi Menachem Mendel Schneerson who headed the Chabad [Hassidic] movement and wielded great influence among many religious Jews in Israel as well as in the United States. "What Rabbi Scheerson taught either was or immediately became official, Lubovitch, Hassidic belief."

'Schneerson, in a speech published in 1965 said, "The difference between a Jewish and a non-Jewish person stems from the common expression: 'Let us differentiate.' Thus, we do not have a case of profound change in which a person is merely on a superior level. Rather, we have a case of 'let us differentiate' between totally different species"."A Jew was not created as a means for some [other] purpose; he himself is the purpose, since the substance of all [divine] emanations was created only to serve the Jews. 'In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth' [Genesis 1:1] means that [the heavens and the earth] were created for the sake of the Jews, who are called the 'beginning.' This means everything, all developments, all discoveries, the creation, including the 'heavens and the earth are vanity compared to the Jews. The important things are the Jews, because they do not exist for any [other] aim; they themselves are [the divine] aim. A non-Jew's entire reality is only vanity. The entire creation [of a non-Jew] exists only for the sake of the Jews.

"In Jewish History, Jewish Religion: The Weight of Three Thousand Years, in regard to the, "Lubavitcher rabbi, M.M. Schneurssohn [Schneerson], who leads this powerful world-wide organisation from his New York headquarters." Shahak wrote,"In Israel these ideas are widely disseminated among the public at large, in the schools and in the army. (According to the testimony of Shulamit Aloni, Member of the Knesset, this Habbad [Chabad] propaganda was particularly stepped up before Israel's invasion of Lebanon in March 1978, in order to induce military doctors and nurses to withhold medical help from 'Gentile wounded'.

This Nazi-like advice did not refer specifically to Arabs or Palestinians, but simply to 'Gentiles', goyim.) A former Israeli President, Shazar, was an ardent adherent of Habbad , and many top Israeli and American politicians - headed by Prime Minister Begin - publicly courted and supported it. This, in spite of the considerable unpopularity of the Lubavitcher rabbi - in Israel he is widely criticised because he refuses to come to the Holy Land even for a visit and keeps himself in New York for obscure messianic reasons, while in New York his anti-Black attitude is notorious. The fact that, despite these pragmatic difficulties, Habbad can be publicly supported by so many top political figures owes much to the thoroughly disingenuous and misleading treatment by almost all scholars who have written about the Hassidic movement and its Habbad branch. [Shahak especially points at German-Jewish religious philosopher, Martin Buber, in relation to this.] This applies particularly to all who have written or are writing about it in English. They suppress the glaring evidence of the old Hassidic texts as well as the latter-day political implications that follow from them, which stare in the face of even a casual reader of the Israeli Hebrew press, in whose pages the Lubavitcher rabbi and other Hassidic leaders constantly publish the most rabid bloodthirsty statements and exhortations against all Arabs."

[Allison Weir: 'The leader being honored on this day is Rabbi Menachem Mendel Schneerson, charismatic head of a mystical/fundamentalist version of Judaism. Every year since 1978, a Presidential Proclamation, often accompanied by a Congressional Resolution (the 1990 one had 219 sponsors), has declared Schneerson’s birthday an official national day of observance. Congress first passed a Resolution honoring Schneerson in 1975. Three years later a Joint Congressional Resolution called on President Jimmy Carter to proclaim “Education Day, U.S.A.” on the anniversary of Schneerson’s birth.']

___

Israel Shahak was a resident of the Warsaw Ghetto and a survivor of Bergen-Belsen. He arrived in Palestine in 1945 and lived there until his death in 2001. He was an outspoken critic of the state of Israel and a renowned human rights activist. He authored the highly acclaimed "Jewish History, Jewish Religion" (Pluto Press 1994) and "Open Secrets: Israeli Nuclear and Foreign Policies" (Pluto Press 1997).

Norton Mezvinsky is Professor of History at Central Connecticut State University.

The fact that Jewish fundamentalists in Israel glorify murderers, undermine the peace process, and practice the most vicious forms of sexism is rarely even acknowledged. Many are afraid to mention this problem for fear of encouraging the anti-Semitism that is endemic in all western societies.....Israel Shahak, an Israeli human rights activist resident in Jerusalem for more than 40 years, and Norton Mezvinsky, an American history professor with great experience in Judaism, have bravely decided to break the silence about the fundamentalist danger. They report that the problem has been glossed over by those reporting on Israeli society much in the way that the crimes of Stalinism were glossed over by some leftists in discussions about the late USSR......The authors conclude that if fundamentalists ever get into power, they will treat non-Jews in Israel very badly, and treat Jews they consider heretics - the vast majority of the Israeli population - even worse. Perhaps more frightening is that they would stop female education and force women to withdraw from public life. The authors ....are right to warn us of the danger, especially the danger of failing to give these people the attention they deserve and judge them as we would other groups. The first thing for Americans to do is brave the wrath of those who don't allow Israel to be criticized and demand a stop to US aid to a system which helps groups that are dangerous to women, democracy and world peace."

-- The Socialist

Compare the media led results when companies have been found using child labour .. Nike being an example

I don't know how anyone can watch this video and not fully understand why BDS is absolutely necessary

If you have boycotted Nike, Fruit of Loom or any of those companies but you use Israeli goods then you are a first class hypocrite